Bose Condensate
by Mini Goat
Summary: Sometimes things just don't work out the way you plan for and you just have to move on. Sam went back to Pete and eight years later a phone call changes everything in Jack and Sam's lives
1. Thesis Statement

**_AN:_**_ What if Jack… didn't work things out? What if Sam went back to Pete and married him anyway? Eight years have passed. _

_I've noticed I tend to avoid the domestic situation of Jack's behavior as a parent or even Sam's for that matter. In spite of his early experiences I think Jack would be a very good dad if his attitudes towards children in the show are any indication. _

_Also as a heads up, this story is over 40 chapters long therefore every Monday I will post something else, probably a Sammy and Jon story Wiggysmom. This will give you a solid month and a half of reading. Kind of like a comic book for hopeless romantics ;)_

_I should add a trigger warning. This story dips somewhat into the behavior of an emotional manipulator and how they act once thwarted in controlling someone. This is a pretty accurate depiction to the level someone like that will stoop to. They WILL attempt to ruin your life if you try to end things with them. In a narcissist's eyes, they decide, not you, when they are done. Worse they will make you feel like you are weak and incapable of running your own life. Sam is extraordinarily lucky. Usually Narcissists will run off everyone who loves you or make you suspicious of their motives until you run them off yourself; leaving you utterly emotionally alone. Without Vala's unique never give up personality… this story would be very different._

**Bose Condensate**

**From Wikipedia:** A Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) is a state of matter (also called the fifth state of matter) which is typically formed when a gas of bosons at low densities is cooled to temperatures very close to absolute zero (-273.15 °C). Under such conditions, a large fraction of bosons occupy the lowest quantum state, at which point microscopic quantum phenomena, particularly wavefunction interference, become apparent macroscopically.

In other words, the underlying cause which is not apparent when moving becomes apparent when subjected to absolute stillness.


	2. Blue Shift

Her hands balled into fists. "Get out." Her voice was low. Furious.

"Babe, I can explain…"

"Get. Out." She told him. "Now." Her blue eyes flashing murderously.

The girl in her bed had already scrambled and fled. She'd let her go. Only her husband was of her concern. Her soon to be ex-husband.

"Babe…"

"There's a suitcase in the closet. Fill it." Her voice a low snarl. "I hope she's not married to someone else because if you run up our credit cards on a hotel room so help me I'll take it out of your ass."

He did as he was told. Two pair of eyes glared at him from either side of the bedroom door. Both deadly. "You're never home, Sam." He tried to tell her as though that was an excuse.

"She's busy saving the world. You're busy getting laid." The other said, her rich voice furious. She was the one that had discovered the truth for Sam. Because she'd been asked to. Because her best friend had suspected for a while that her husband wasn't faithful. Had not been in some time. Perhaps had never been.

"And what the hell is she doing here anyway? How do I know the reason you are never home isn't because you are sleeping with _her_?"

Vala laughed. Rich. Long. She laughed so hard tears gathered at the corners of her eyes. "Darling, your wife isn't at _all_ my type." She said with an 'ah' of amusement. "Mostly as she doesn't have a penis." She looked at Pete's half dressed state. "I dare say you're barely my type either."

Sam snorted on a laugh.

"Bitch."

"Why yes darling, I am. But at least I'm a faithful one." She said dismissively. It hadn't been her intention to take over the conversation but the other woman's anger was a façade that would not last beyond Pete's car exiting the driveway. Sam had always been too trusting of others.

The blond man threw on a shirt and pair of jeans and pulled the suitcase out of the room.

When they heard his car start, Sam sagged and Vala grabbed her into a fierce hug. "Come on, let's get out of here."

"But?"

"No buts, Sam. The SF's will watch the house."

"I don't want the boys to see me like this." Sam sniffled on Vala's shoulder.

"All right. Let's go to a bar first then. You can get drunk and pick a fight with a biker gang."

Sam let out a watery chuckle.

* * *

They sat in a seedy dive on the edge of town. Normally they would never even entertain such a place as an option but Vala was avoiding running into anyone they might know and, with any luck, detective pants around his ankles wouldn't show up either.

"Where did I go wrong, Vala? I married him, gave him the children he wanted. Did everything he asked of me." She sniffled and threw back most of a glass of cheap whiskey she never would have touched nearly a decade ago when they first met. Not because it was whiskey but because it was barely above wine in a box, something else she never used to drink either.

Sam's voice was so lost, so small. Vala patted her hand gently. "Some men are just pigs Sam, and there's not a thing you can do about that." But Vala had an opinion on the matter that she didn't think Sam wanted to hear right now. One that involved her own husband as much as it did her best friend.

Sam sighed despondently.

Vala talked herself out of keeping her mouth shut. "Sam, you don't have to answer me, but why didn't you marry Jack?"

Sam looked at Vala, her expression stricken. "Why would you ask me that?"

"You loved him; he loved you. I suppose I don't understand why you didn't try to make it work."

Sam laughed. It wasn't a joyful laugh but one of recrimination and self-loathing. "He didn't want me." She looked off as though reliving a horrible vision. "I broke things off with Pete when dad died because I thought…" she stared off into space. "But… it didn't stick. He left for DC and that was that." Her voice ending on a hollow tone.

"Oh Sam." Vala sighed. She'd been the only one besides Teal'c to keep in touch with Jack and she knew better. There had to be more to it than Sam's version. She knew there was. Jack had never remarried, not dated anyone. Just gone on like he'd never had any interest in life. Oh he was known for being a kind commander, always fair and honest with the people under him… but he wasn't the man Vala met who looked at Sam with the world in his eyes.

He wasn't the Jack that Vala once knew any more than Sam was the woman she'd been. They were nothing but shells of their former selves now. Sam's saving grace was her kids who she adored more than life itself. Georgie and Jake were the light in her dim life. Daniel had picked them up from school for the weekend having told Pete that he and Vala wanted to take the kids to an amusement park and see the latest animated movie they didn't have an excuse to go to without kids in tow. It had been nothing but a ruse so Sam could confront Pete about his philandering. Vala had planned to stay in the car but Sam had lost her nerve in the driveway and she'd marched the other woman up to confront the cheating bastard. They hadn't expected to find him with a girl in Sam's own bed though. That had just been the cherry on top. Sam's original intent had been to confront him with photos she had of him on dates and entering hotel rooms with the girl. Vala was glad she'd come up. She really wasn't certain how Sam would have reacted otherwise.

"What do I do now?" Sam asked softly as she toyed with another cheap glass of whiskey.

"Now you pick yourself up, you get a good attorney, and you file for divorce, darling."

"Colorado is a no fault state." Sam said hollowly.

"Well, I think sticking his dick in other women is a fairly clear indication the marriage is irrecoverably broken."

"Yah." Sam sniffled.

Vala hugged her tightly. "It will be all right Sam. Daniel and I will be here for you, so will Cam and Carolyn and Muscles too. None of us are going to let you go through this alone." She thought for a moment. "Do you know what would make you feel better?"

"What?"

"Let's go drag your bed out on the front lawn and take a chain saw to it." She told Sam enthusiastically.

Sam chuckled a little. "Ok, yah, that probably would make me feel better." She admitted.

"Do you own a chainsaw?" Vala asked her enthusiastically.

Sam nodded. Ironically it had been Jack's. Jack who didn't want to be with her. Jack who left for DC and stopped talking to her after her wedding even though the only reason she'd gotten back together with Pete was because Jack didn't want to be with her. Had told her sleeping with her had been a mistake they shouldn't have made.

Sam decided after she trashed the bed and anything else specific to the marriage she'd get rid of anything of Jack's she had too. She wouldn't be in this mess if he… Sam shook her head. It was too late for that now. She had a marriage to dissolve and two little boys to be there for.

* * *

Six months later Sam sat with Vala, Daniel, Cam and Carolyn in a much nicer bar than the one Sam and Vala had gone to the night she'd thrown Pete out

"Here's to moving on." Cam announced as he held up his glass.

The last court date had been today and the divorce was final. Pete had fought Sam about belongings and the house while admitting he didn't want custody or even partial custody of the boys. Sam hadn't wanted alimony but she did petition for child support; Pete had fought over the amount as though his children didn't deserve his attention or support even though the reason Sam didn't make hazard pay any more was due to Pete insisting she give up gate travel after Georgie was born because he couldn't handle being a single parent or so he said.

Sam now suspected he simply thought his job as a dad was to show up and play peek-a-boo then hand the child over if it needed changing or feeding or any other function of survival. At best Pete was an indifferent parent. A matter Sam had always found odd as he was the one who had pushed for children. Perhaps in retrospect, he had thought children would force Sam to stick around in spite of her doubts.

She had been pregnant when they got married. When Jack ended things she'd shown up at the house Pete bought her, not knowing where else to go and not wanting to go home in case Jack showed up and wanted to argue with her there too. They had slept together which in retrospect Sam suspected was just emotional manipulation on his part again but she'd been bereft and Pete wanted her. She'd realized she was pregnant three weeks later and planned a quick wedding. She'd invited Jack because it would have looked bad had she not and he'd come and congratulated her but not stayed for much of the reception. Probably for exactly the same reason she'd invited him. Appearances. She was just as glad. Seeing him had hurt more than she'd have liked to admit.

"To moving on." Sam said firmly, snapping out of her melancholy thoughts about her trail of wreckage. She didn't have such a bad life. She had the house, the dog, the kids, and about half the furniture most of which had once been in her bungalow when she was single. They had trashed the bed and bedroom furniture then repainted the bedroom a color Pete had hated the idea of. Anything to excise him from memory.

"How are the kids handling everything Sam?" Carolyn asked her.

Sam sighed. "All right. I have to argue with Georgie to go to the phone to talk to his dad and he's told me he won't go see him though Pete hasn't asked even once yet to do so."

"Smart kid." Cam said under his breath and jumped a little when Carolyn kicked his shin.

Sam sighed. "Why didn't any of you say anything?"

The rest of them looked at each other uncomfortably. They had been told, no ordered not to. That it was Sam's decision and if Pete made her happy then they were to be happy for her. None of them said anything. None of them knew what to say. That order had destroyed at least one friendship already.

A decade ago, Sam would have noticed the shifty reactions of her former teammates and called them out on it but perhaps she didn't want to see or she simply was too emotionally shattered herself to sense the undercurrent at the table due to her soft question. Now she just looked into her drink and accepted the silence like she'd accepted so much else that was wrong with her life. Accepted that she wasn't loved or wanted by the man she'd genuinely loved, accepted a proposal so she didn't have to be a single parent. Accepted a loveless marriage that was as much on herself as it had been on Pete.

"Just think darling, you have your whole life ahead of you now." Vala told her cheerfully.


	3. Six Months Later:

**Six months later:**

"Georgie, you're going to be late for the bus!" Sam shouted up the stairs as she sifted through the mail.

"Sorry mom!" The boy, her boy, yelled as he careened down the stairs and skidded to a stop on the linoleum by the pantry. His hair stuck out in all directions as he'd clearly not combed it or if he had, it once again had a mind of its own. He grabbed the box of Fruit Loops and crammed several into his mouth while he dug around for his shoes under the mudroom bench. If Sam went by the size of the shoes the kid wore he'd be a very tall man when he grew up. Right now he was gangly and coltish.

"Mama, it's crazy hair day today." Jake informed her in his serious little voice from the kitchen table where he was eating a microwaved scrambled egg that he called egg in a bowl.

"Your brother has that covered in his natural state." Sam told the five year old but went to the hall closet and grabbed a box of left over Halloween makeup. Georgie had gone as the Hulk a couple years back and she still had green hair spray. "Hold still kiddo." She told her youngest whose hair was lighter than his brother's and prone to falling easily in place in short soft waves like her own. She hosed him down with green glittering spray. "There yah go. You officially both have crazy hair." She handed them each a dollar.

Georgie had found his shoes and was shoveling more cereal into his mouth. "Bye mom" He mumbled around his pouched out cheeks and gave her a sloppy kiss before running out the door.

"Love you mama." Her five year old told her and give her a hug and kiss before bolting after his brother yelling 'Wait up Georgie! My legs are little!' It was still warm yet so both boys bounded down the block coatless to where the other three kids on their block met up to get a ride to school. Sam could watch covertly from the front window and always did.

She sighed and looked down at the pile of bills. Glaring red letters greeting her from her mortgage company. She couldn't afford the house on their reduced income. If Pete would just pay some of his child support she could have just cut back any non-essential expenses and gotten by but nothing came in spite of her attorney's threats otherwise.

A small dark entity scrabbled around in her chest and hissed that she should have known better then to think she could do anything on her own. She jumped when her land line rang. So, not work at least. They always called her cell. She looked and the caller ID said it was Mark.

"Sha…" She stopped, took a breath. "Carter residence." She said, but her voice shuddered a little even though it was her brother.

"Hey sis, you didn't call this week so I thought I'd check up on you." Mark told her. She had fallen into the habit of calling him every week after the falling out with Jack though she hadn't realized that had been her reason and still didn't.

"Oh," she didn't notice the slight pause. "I'm all right. How's the family?" She asked him.

Mark spent the next hour pulling teeth out of his sister. She wasn't better after the divorce as he'd hoped. She wasn't herself at all still and Mark had gone from patient to concerned. He was more in the loop than his sister knew. Her friends had kept up with him over the years and more so during the events of the divorce as they knew Sam wouldn't defend her actions and they didn't want to give Pete a chance to manipulate her brother into thinking somehow this was all Sam's fault. Not that Mark would have believed his mostly former friend over his own sister but none of them had any way to know that for sure, especially after the way he'd acted at the wedding, backing Jack in his refusal to intervene in the situation even though most if not all her friends objected to the way things now were from the start.

He'd ended the conversation as they always did. With his reminder that he loved her and the boys and that he'd talk to her again soon. She'd had to leave for work.

Mark stared hard at his phone for a long time before making a decision.

He'd be at lunch probably. Not realizing the person he intended to call never left his office for lunch anymore and had not for years. Mark pulled on his lip. He was pretty sure he'd call him back right away because he'd worry. The man always worried. They had spoken off and on over the years, kept in touch for her sake. Mark had known what drove his sister back into Pete's arms and he couldn't say he'd been ok with the idea. His dad had been pretty clear about the situation and what he was supposed to do. Mark had dropped the ball. They all had but most of all Mark who'd been given specific dying instructions by his father not to let his sister marry his friend, that there was just something off about the guy, and Sam was in love with someone else anyway.

Yah, he'd screwed up. Screwed up big time. His dad was gone and he'd been absolutely right. Now his sister didn't have anyone and Mark felt entirely responsible for not fixing this years ago when he had the chance to. He'd thought he'd been doing the right thing, letting Sam decide for herself who she wanted to be with, they both had, but what if things had gone differently. What if he'd spoken up like he'd been ordered to? Sure he might not have his nephews but perhaps they could have made things right without Pete standing between them like he had.

Mark drummed his fingers for a while, staring at his phone. He should be taking care of paperwork or driving out to his sister's or anything other than staring at a phone willing it to dial itself so he'd have to talk to the one person he thought might be able to make this better somehow. He had no idea how that might happen but he'd been the only one able to fix things in the past.

Screw it. He decided he could always try again in an hour if he got the voice mail box. He picked up his phone and scrolled through his contact list until he found it. The phone rang once, twice. A familiar voice barked a familiar name. The name Mark felt his sister should have had if he hadn't been a coward. "I know it's an odd time to call but I need a favor." Mark told the man on the other end of the line.


	4. A Week later on Friday:

**A week later on Friday:**

Sam sighed as she threw her purse and keys on the hall table. She flipped on lights as she went and passed her living room where a voice announced. "There you are. I was beginning to think you would sleep on base tonight."

Sam jumped and screamed as much that there was someone in the house as the familiarity of the voice.

"Easy, Carter. I didn't mean to scare you." This was worse than he thought. His Carter would have drawn down on him not screamed in fear. 'What happened to you?' he wondered at her and some of that must have telegraphed in his expression because she stiffened defensively. 'Ah, now that he remembered… vividly.' Jack winced.

"How the hell did you get into my house?"

"I've ah, had the garage door code for a while, for um, emergencies."

"Who the hell gave you my garage door code?" she demanded.

He pondered telling her the truth then opted instead to throw her off the scent for a bit just in case. He made a mental apology to the woman. "Vala gave it to me."

She looked at him hard. It figured. "Well. Now you know it works and I'm fine so you can go ahead and go Sir. I'm not in the mood for company and I'm off the clock."

Jack stood. Had things worked out differently he'd have grown a little stout with the comfort of a happy marriage as many men do, but Jack had nothing to occupy his free time but his unhappy thoughts so instead he went to the gym and it showed. He was still rangy and well muscled. The brackets by his mouth were a bit deeper, his hair more silver than grey now. His dark brown eyes were somber on her tired blue ones. "This isn't exactly a social call Carter."

"If I'm up for a review or a reprimand for my performance, you can do so on base. The regulations don't require me to entertain you in my own home." She didn't back down as he approached but she did squeeze out a "Sir."

Jack sighed and looked disappointed. He didn't want this to be about their ranks. That had already caused enough trouble. "I'm off the clock too Carter and I have a name. I'd appreciate if you'd use it."

She looked at him incredulously. Then she started laughing. It wasn't the giggle he'd admonished her for years long ago. This was a despondent thing, this new laugh of hers. As though she couldn't quite believe he had the nerve after all that had happened to ask such a thing of her. "What the hell do you want Jack?" She finally asked him as she headed for the kitchen.

He followed her and without much thought started setting up her coffee pot and turned it on. He knew she'd prefer a tea but he wanted her alert and tea relaxed her too much.

Sam, for her part, went to the fridge and looked at a couple left-overs containers before choosing one and tossing it in the microwave. She debated about being utterly rude for a moment before waving vaguely at the fridge. "There's Macaroni or left over pizza if you are hungry. Help yourself."

It wasn't exactly a warm gesture but it was a start. Jack opened the door and pulled out the pizza. It was from that great mom and pop place they used to go to together all the time. The one that the owner used to tease him about when was he going to propose to his pretty blond. Jack smiled sadly but noticed at least there was no longer boxed wine in the corner or crap from the chain with the cardboard flavored crust.

"Papa Vino's?" He asked her of the pizza.

"The kids love it. They won't even touch that garbage Pete likes so much now." She said almost savagely.

Jack nodded thoughtfully as he bit into the cold pizza covered in meat and mushrooms. He noted Sam didn't say 'their father' and wondered why. Most acrimonious divorces involved not calling each other by name. Former spouses were relegated to the realm of genetic donor of the children alone.

She pulled her meal out of the microwave and ate it standing. "Well. What did you want anyway?" She finally asked him.

"I only came to talk." He said with a shrug.

She barked that humorless laugh at him again. "You're about eight years too late for that… Jack." His name sounded like acid on her tongue to him.

"I know." He admitted softly, suddenly having lost his apatite for the coveted gourmet pizza. "I know this is my fault. All of this." He told her.

She shook her head though. "I always knew you had a towering ego but this takes the cake. You think my divorce is about you? Well, that was a good laugh. Good night General. See yourself out." She told him as she set down her half eaten Mu Shu pork and started to walk out of the room past him.

Jack O'Neill had never once in his life forced himself on a woman against her will except the exactly one time she'd been infected with a virus that made her act out sexually towards him and he'd forced her off in that case but he did so now. His hand shot out and he grabbed her arm in a vice-like grip. They had a staring contest and for the first time ever, Jack won. It felt wrong. This isn't how he wanted this to go. He let go of her arm and hung his head.

"Not the divorce… this…" He waved his hand absently, "Whole thing. All of it." He sighed. "It's my fault."

She looked at him for a long time and the longer she looked the harder her eyes got. Finally she said the last thing he expected out of her. "Yes. It's entirely your fault."

Jack hung his head. She was right. But he'd come to do what he should have done eight long years ago. He'd come to tell her why.

He stared at the floor as he started, unable to meet her eyes. "I should have told you this years ago Sam, but I didn't want you waiting around for me because… If you had…" He shook his head.

"If I had what Jack?"

He shook his head again. "It wasn't you, Sam. It was never about you." He raked his hand into his hair, sending it off into random tufts. "That asshole McConnell holds all the strings in congress. The joint chiefs were pressuring me, I didn't even know why."

"McConnell was a Kinsey sympathizer." She said thoughtfully. Starting to understand the edges of what happened.

"And in the NID's pocket. They can say what they want. The 'rogue' pockets are just congressionally sanctioned pirates. They always have been. They used you to control the Joint Chiefs." He sighed despondently. "They were threatening to ruin your career if we didn't play ball. He knew the rest of the Joint Chiefs would back me but not when it came to military projects if funding dried up."

"He made you choose your country or me."

Jack nodded miserably. "Sam, I chose you." He said, looking up for the first time into her eyes, his burning, willing her to believe him. "I told them I'd step down, that they couldn't make me choose between my life and my country. That's when it came down the pipe that if I didn't get in line they'd sideline your career." Jack looked like he wanted to be sick. "I… I was trying to tell you that we should have just gotten married when you were at Groom Lake before I left but I screwed up how it came out and by the time I had a chance to talk to you about it Daniel told me you were seeing the cop again and you were pregnant."

Jack looked out the window blankly, he continued, his voice hollow. "I could never keep another guy away from his kid no matter how much I hated him. I was too late. That's why…" he sighed and stopped. She didn't need to know how much more he'd screwed up. That he'd lost his best friend over it too.

Sam swallowed hard. Because of a petty little man with too much power she'd lost everything. Then she laughed that desperate laugh again. "They didn't have to. I did it to myself anyway."

He looked at her again, his dark eyes filled with confusion.

"After Georgie was born, Pete pushed for me to give up field work, then turn down promotions and assignments that would have meant him sacrificing anything. When they offered me the position at Atlantis, he told me he wanted another baby. I don't know why I believed him but I turned down the assignment. I'm not even putting in enough hours to pay my mortgage." She said on a choked sigh.

"I can't fix what happened. I'm sorry. All I can do is help you now. If you'll let me." He told her.

"Help with what? What are you going to do Jack? Pull out a magic wand and make it all go away?" She asked him, her voice bordering on hysterical. It was a tone he'd never heard from her, had never wanted to hear.

Jack looked at her. "They don't need me in Washington physically. As long as I have a laptop with video capabilities and my cell phone it doesn't matter where I'm at. I should be closer to Peterson anyway. You can work longer hours if there's someone home to watch the boys for free right?" He asked her hopefully.

"Speaking of my boys. It's interesting that you didn't ask where they were." She told him pointedly.

He gave her a half smile. "I might have been informed they were spending the night with their aunt and uncle." He admitted.

Sam let out a disgusted grunt.

"Don't be too hard on any of them Carter. They did what they did because they love you." He looked away. "We all did." He said sadly.

"Right now it doesn't feel much like love." She said staring up at the ceiling.

Jack's gut twisted. If she only knew what he'd sacrificed to save her. Whatever damage she'd done to her career was salvageable with a bit of hard work. What they had threatened her with if he didn't cooperate… she wouldn't have come back from that. Losing her was a small price to pay to keep from ruining her entire life. Instead he'd only ruined half of her life it seemed. "I owe you this Carter. I owe you a lot more but let me start with this and we can go from there with what else I screwed up about your life and need to fix." He rose and stood in front of her without touching her. His eyes pleaded with her. He knew the moment she gave in, with resignation but she did, she needed him more than she'd have ever admitted if she admitted it at all. He raised his hand to brush his knuckles on her cheek but she flinched away.

Jack looked at her with barely concealed horror. If that bastard was hitting her so help me… but no, she wasn't flinching in fear of pain, at least not physical pain. It was him. She was afraid to accept any comfort from him. She had to be desperate to even accept his help at all by the way she'd just reacted.

"What time does the bus get here in the afternoon?"

"Huh? Oh, Um, 1530 or so. Give or take for traffic."

"Ok. Is it ok if I meet the kids this weekend so they know what to expect?"

She nodded absently. "That's fine. Vala or Daniel is bringing them home mid morning tomorrow. I could call you after they get home?"

"I'd like that. I'm sorry I haven't been here for you Carter. I should have been. I should have told you the truth a long time ago." His voice was soft and hoarse with emotion.

She twisted her fingers together and looked up at him. "You should probably go now." She told him.

He nodded. "Yah. Yah I should go. I'll, ah, see you tomorrow then?"

She nodded, her eyes huge with an emotion he couldn't quite read any more. Years ago they would have hugged before he left. Friends. But they weren't friends right now. Not yet anyway. Possibly never again but he wanted to fix that if he could. Mark had been right to call him.


	5. Saturday:

**Saturday:**

Sam called him when she saw Daniel's car pull up her driveway. She didn't want to give herself time to chicken out. No matter how angry she was at him, she desperately needed the free babysitting if she was going to hang on to the house and after she fought for it… The mortgage was underwater which was part of the problem, Pete had stupidly overpaid for the green Victorian style that wasn't nearly as pretty as Jack's craftsman had been. She must have said something about liking that style when Pete picked it out. She did, but she wished he'd asked her first or… something. A house for both of them should have been picked by both of them, some kind of compromise of what they both wanted. The outside was pretty but the interior layout needed work and Pete was no carpenter. He wasn't mechanically minded at all. He didn't even know how to change his own tire.

She'd lose money on it if she sold it now though. She'd only held on to the house because it was the only home her kids had ever known and she wouldn't be able to afford or even qualify for a loan now. Yet another mistake in a long line of mistakes she'd made.

"O'Neill," he barked when he picked up.

Sam coughed. "The kids just got home." She said.

"All right, give me a couple minutes and I'll be right over." He told her. His voice was warm.

After he hung up, he couldn't help but smile. After the break-up, she'd avoided him. If he came to the base, she found something to do that kept her out of sight. Eventually she just didn't come in. He figured her informant must be Walter, He was the only one who knew ahead of schedule when anyone was making a surprise visit. Walter loved her enough to help her hide from him. He couldn't blame the man; he'd have done the same thing himself.

Jack had always wanted to meet the boys. Had, for a short time of his life, had this odd hope that they could one day be friends again. He hadn't wanted it to be due to her husband being a cheating bastard but here they were. He didn't even dare hope she might have some small flicker of feelings for him still. He was fairly certain he'd managed to kill that. Perhaps it was just his fate to love a woman he could never have.

Be that as it may, he'd already been dressed and ready to go since 0600. Just in case she called early. And he refused to beat himself up over it either. This was the happiest he'd been in nearly a decade and he wasn't going to lie to himself about the reason. Begrudged crumbs of contact with Carter beat out her staying as far away as she could possibly get. With time he might work up to her accepting him as someone she could rely on again and he'd settle for that too because … fuck it. All this was still better than all the empty years without her at all.

* * *

"Mom! Uncle Daniel said I could help him catalog rocks he found in South America last year." Georgie told her excitedly.

"That's great, kiddo. Did you have fun?"

"It was awweeessoommmeee…." He said in a sing song voice. "Come on, Hutch!" He told the golden retriever Pete had bought her. He was calmer now than he had been as a pup but still game for some fun and followed his gangly master into the house.

Sam shook her head in humor. Vala came around the front of the car carrying a passed out Jake. "Here, I'll take him."

"That's all right. I can take him in. How did it go last night?" Jack had texted her a heads up that he'd blamed her for the garage code not wanting Sam to know her own brother had thrown her under the bus. Vala was fine with it, if Mark hadn't called she might have.

"Did you call him?" Sam asked in an accusatory tone.

"I did not. How did it go?" Mark had called her to iron out a night they could take the kids so he and Jack could solidify details but she had not called Jack. Not even once. Texted him back a few times…

"He wants to babysit the kids for me after school so I can earn enough to get the mortgage paid down."

"Well that's wonderful darling! I know that's been stressing you out and might I add shame on your ex for over- paying for this shack." Vala told her as they walked into the house.

Sam chuckled. "It's already a long list of things he ought to be ashamed of himself for."

"You won't get any argument from me. I'll put this little guy to bed and get going so you can talk to your little protector about his new babysitter." She told Sam and pecked her on the cheek affectionately.

Sam's shoulders sagged with a sigh of resignation. She followed Vala upstairs and headed for Georgie's room.

Her son sat on his bed reading one of her old Hardy Boys books. "Hey mom." Hutch looked up and thumped his tail on the bed a couple times then plopped his head back down on Georgie's lap.

"Got a minute, buddy?"

"Sure, what's up?"

Sam sat and looked at this boy she had made and hoped she was doing the right thing. "Um, a friend of mine stopped by last night to talk. He heard mom was having a little trouble with the house payment and wanted to help."

"Is he going to pay our house payment?"

Sam laughed a little. "He's not that kind of friend. We used to work together and he works remotely a lot now so he offered to hang out with you guys for a couple hours after school so mom can make a little more money."

"Is he nice?"

"He's one of the kindest men I know and he loves kids. I think you will like him."

"Does he like dogs?"

Sam laughed and ruffled his messy light brown hair. "He loves dogs."

"You know mom…" Georgie said thoughtfully, "We don't have to keep the house if you can't afford it."

"You let mom worry about that, ok?"

"Ok. But it's kind of an ugly house, mom. Like, not on the outside but…"

She laughed. "I get it." She hugged his shoulder and was rewarded with a face full of doggy kisses for her efforts.

Vala smiled softly as she listened to Sam talk to her son. Oh to be a fly on the wall in about an hour but she'd promised not to loiter and she didn't want to lie to Daniel either. He'd find out soon enough and she didn't want to have to tell him she'd been in the thick of Mark's scheme. She tucked Jake in and kissed his forehead. She'd always had her suspicions about Georgie. She looked at Jake and thought about his dark eyes. Far darker than Pete's and chocolaty… just like… she shook her head. That just couldn't be possible could it? They didn't talk for years.

She glided quietly out of the house and passed the military motor pool issue SUV on her way out of the neighborhood. "Good luck, General." She told him, mentally rooting for him.

* * *

Jack all but bounded onto the porch. It was a pretty house in the daylight. It had been dark last night when he'd broken in so all he'd gotten an impression of was green and gingerbread trim. He never did ask Sam where she was for so long last night. Perhaps at work, possibly getting a drink somewhere but she hadn't smelled like a bar. He missed her smelling like leather and fresh air. He missed her smile. He missed her eyes lighting up when she saw him and she'd never known she did it.

He debated on knocking or ringing the doorbell and ended up doing both. A dog barked somewhere in the house and Jack grinned. The door swung open to Carter in a soft looking sweater and lived in looking jeans that had holes in the knees. Her feet were bare. "Hi." He said, knowing he was grinning a little foolishly. A dog skidded and careened across the floor behind her and sat with a woof at her side.

"Who's your friend?"

"This big idiot is Hutch. He's about as good at guarding the house as you are at keeping your hands out of a donut box." She told him with a smile for the dog who was happily thumping his tail on the floor.

Jack crouched and put out a hand to the dog. "Nice to meet you, Hutch." And chuckled when the dog put a paw in his hand to shake.

"Georgie likes teaching him tricks. He's not smart but he's very food motivated."

"I can relate, buddy." Jack told the dog, shaking the paw and standing, giving her a broad smile.

Sam coughed and her neck and cheeks turned a light shade of pink under his gaze as he smiled at her. "You can come in. Jake is asleep but I'll call Georgie down." She said and turned away quickly.

'Well that's interesting' he thought to himself. She may not have any feelings for him anymore but she still found him attractive. Jack wasn't a man to press his advantage for personal gain though so he let the matter drop for now. There was so much he'd have to do just to earn her friendship back that his personal feelings for her were currently back to the bottom of the list of things he needed to worry about at the moment.

Sam had meanwhile, padded to the stairwell. "Georgie! Your company is here!" She yelled up with the practice of a seasoned parent. For a brief moment it brought back memories of Sara yelling for Charlie in the same way. Jack shook it off. There was a real living seven year old boy that needed him now. This was no time for ghosts.

"Just a minute, mom!" Came a muffled reply and an 'oof' followed by a frustrated curse when the sound of a busted Lego creation clearly hit the floor.

"I better not hear you use that word in front of General O'Neill!" Sam yelled up at the boy in disgust and she turned to him. "Sorry. His father hasn't been the best influence on his language."

Jack knew for a fact that the woman in front of him could curse like a sailor and chewed on a smile. "General O'Neill?" He asked mildly with a quirk of his scarred and rakish eyebrow.

"You can hash out with him yourself what you expect him to call you. I told him you're an old friend of mine that's going to help out by watching them after school for a while."

He nodded. "We're friends?" He asked and tried to keep the desperation and hope out of his voice so he didn't sound as pathetic as he felt about the whole thing.

"We were. Once." But she wouldn't look at him when she said it and Jack felt like he did when she'd gotten her memories back and called him Sir cheerfully. Not realizing how much his heart broke in that moment.

At that moment Georgie chose to fling himself down the stairs full throttle and skid to a stop in the foyer much the way his dog had moments before. The boy looked up at Jack who towered over him at six two but Georgie wasn't exactly short himself, a solid four feet tall already. Hutch greeted the boy with a woof.

"Georgie, this is General O'Neill. Sir, this is my son, Georgie." Sam said formally to them both.

Jack held out a hand to the boy who took it and gave it a tentative shake. He was clearly slightly awestruck. Jack crouched down so he was closer to the boy's level even though his knee reminded him that's a terrible idea old man. "It's very nice to meet you Georgie. I've been friends with your mom for a very, very long time. You don't have to call me General O'Neill." He told the kid in his standard soothing skittish animals and shy children voice.

Georgie tilted his head thoughtfully. "What should I call you then sir?" He asked politely.

Jack chuckled a little at the 'sir'. Sam had 'sir'ed him to death for years. For a while she'd even done it in the privacy of their own homes until he'd begged her to please stop. "Jack is fine with me Georgie." He told the boy kindly.

Georgie looked at him thoughtfully "I thought you were a colonel." He finally said. Suspicion coloring his voice.

Jack laughed. "I was for a very long time. Don't make your superior officers mad. They pass you over for promotions for it."

Sam made a strangled little sound. "I'll ah, leave you guys to get acquainted." She said and quickly left the front hall.

Georgie watched his mom go with a thoughtful look on his face. "Want to see my Legos?" He asked Jack.

"Absolutely kiddo." Jack told him and Georgie led him upstairs to his bedroom. They passed the master that was clearly decorated entirely in Sam's taste. It was yellow and white with dabs of lavender and absolutely feminine. He'd bet a buck Vala had helped her redo it to erase and exorcise all trace of Pete. Jack frowned. It should have been his bedroom she redecorated and this should have been his boy.

Jack squashed that thought process. Sam had enough problems without him piling on his regrets about what they had almost had. What he still wanted on nights he was honest with himself.

"We have to be quiet though because Jake is still asleep." Georgie told him in a loud whisper.

"No I'm not!" piped the five year old from the next room.

A little blond head popped into the bedroom where Jack was sitting on Georgie's bed while he dug around in a bin of bricks.

"Hi. I'm Jake. What's your name?" Jake didn't wait for Jack to answer. "Are you our new babysitter? Mom says we have to be on our best behavior but I'm always good. Mom says so. Do you know I'm named after my grandpa? He died though. Georgie is named after mom's godfodder, who used to be her boss. She says he was really, really bald. So was my grandpa. I hope I don't go bald. Do you like spaceships? I want to be an astronaut when I grow up or an archeologist like Uncle Daniel."

Georgie rolled his eyes. "He's always like this. Mom says he hasn't shut up since he learned how to talk."

Jack laughed. "Hi Jake, I'm Jack and I knew your grandpa. If you want, if your mom is ok with it, I'll tell you some stories about some missions we went on together." Jack offered.

"Were you in the airforts like mom and grandpa? Did you win any medals? Can I see them? Mom has medals but she doesn't like to talk about them. Do you know my mom is divorced? That means she and my dad aren't married any more. Are you going to marry my mom Jack?"

"See what I mean?" Georgie said with a long suffering eye roll.

Jack nodded wisely to the seven year old and tried not to laugh. He could imagine Sam exactly like this at the same age. He wished he could have been part of their lives all along but he knew their father never would have let him live vicariously through Sam's boys. He'd made it abundantly clear that Jack was no longer welcome in Sam's life at the reception. "I do know your mom is divorced Jake, and no, I'm just the babysitter." He said with a sad smile.

Georgie gave him that speculative look he'd given his mother earlier.

* * *

A couple hours later Jack headed downstairs. The boys were happily trashing Georgie's room having decided Jack was ok for a grown up and he'd slipped out with the excuse that he needed to use the head. Georgie had instructed him that it was down the hall on the right but continued playing. Jake was in the corner dicing up construction paper and gluing it in seemingly random patterns onto a cardboard tube.

He found Sam in the kitchen getting out leftovers to reheat for a late lunch. "Hey." He said to her softly. Not wanting to startle her like he had last night.

She jumped a little anyway. "Did they behave themselves?"

"They did. Georgie is creating spaceships out of Legos and Jake was working on some kind of art project when I left them." He told her, resisting the urge to come up behind her and wrap his arms around her waist. "They're good kids Carter." He told her softly, his voice gentle like she was a skittish colt ready to bolt at any sign of a fight.

She nodded absently, not even realizing he'd gently worked himself into her personal space until she turned around to ask him if he was hungry. She startled a bit again and looked up at him, wary. "It's not much but I have left over spaghetti for lunch or if you prefer there's some barley soup I made a couple days ago." Her voice was soft, unsure.

Somehow Jack knew that in that very moment he could have pressed his advantage. That while Sam might be mad as hell at him and probably would never ever love him again, she was still attracted to him as a man. But he also knew if he did, he'd lose whatever scraps of friendship with her he might have left. So he backed away again when he'd have rather kissed the lips she was nervously biting. "I should probably go. I don't want to overstay my welcome." He said to her, his voice gravely but he hid his feelings with a self deprecating smile.

"You know my cooking isn't _that_ bad." She said with false cheer.

"You were never a bad cook, Carter. You've never been bad at anything you set your mind to." He told her with a little grin.

She sighed. "I'm pretty bad at at least one thing." She thought she'd said too softly for him to hear as he put on his jacket.

Jack turned and walked back to her, his eyes pinning her in place. "You were never ever bad at that either." He told her firmly. As he walked away he called over his shoulder. "Tell the boys I had fun and I'll see them Monday!"

Sam stood and listened to the SUV pull away then sank slowly into a kitchen chair. She didn't understand what had just happened at all. One moment they were talking about the boys and the next she'd stupidly admitted she was terrible at relationships and he was angry at her again.

Sam swiped away the tear that rolled down her cheek and took a deep steadying breath.


	6. Monday:

**Monday:**

Jack locked up the house and headed for Sam's. He had the garage code so he could let himself in. He was almost surprised she hadn't changed it after finding out he had it for who knows how long but apparently his offer to watch the kids had resigned her to letting him into her house unattended.

He decided if Sam didn't have the boys doing chores yet, he'd start them on that path. The less Sam had to worry about at home the more she could focus on her work and getting back on track to becoming full bird. She should have made general by now. If he'd stuck around like he should have, she probably would have. Any of the assignments Pete had made her turn down would have pushed her promotion forward. The Atlantis gig would have been a sure fire rung in the ladder to getting her stars.

Sure it would have been a hardship for the guy for a couple years but it wasn't a permanent assignment post unless you asked for it to be one. If it had been him, he'd have made it work. Hired a nanny or something. Why the hell had that idiot cop held her back from making more money. They could have had a more comfortable life and she loved her job… oh. Oh… That son of a bitch. Jack thought furiously. That cock sucking ass munching dog shit bastard.

Jack slammed the van door hard as he stomped into her house and looked around. Everything he saw, everything she owned had been at her little bungalow she bought shortly after they met. Sam wasn't the kind to be wasteful so he'd taken everything. Jack would bet he took half the money too. Whereas Jack had bought out his half of Sara's house, this bastard had left her holding the bag for the entire mortgage that Sam had admitted was behind and underwater too. Even if she sold the house she'd be in the hole and her credit trashed. That slimy no good piece of omak. Shit. He was so pissed he was swearing in Goa'uld now.

A warm tongue licked his hand. Hutch whined at him.

"Do you need to go out, buddy?" He asked the dog affectionately. He scratched the old boy behind the ears a little then headed for the back door to let him out to do his business.

Jack was still furious though so he started scrubbing the breakfast dishes left in the sink. Apparently the dinner dishes were under them so he scrubbed those too and put everything neatly in the dishwasher before running it. He started to wonder what else he could clean to work off some fury when Hutch woofed from the backyard at the approaching bus. Jack looked at his watch. My how time flies when you want to rip a cop's dick off he thought with a grim smile.

Jack wiped his damp hands and waited for the garage door to open again. Jake hit the door first, talking a mile a minute to Georgie who was absently agreeing with him but clearly not listening even a little.

"Hey Mr. Jack." Georgie said affably and headed right for the fridge to dig around for a snack.

Jake went to the bowl of fruit on the counter and started munching an apple, continuing his monolog at his brother with a mumbled "Hi Uncle Jack" around his apple before he went back to describing whatever had him so geared up today.

"Hey boys. Do either of you have homework?" Secretly glowing that he'd already been upgraded to uncle by at least Jacob.

"I don't." Jake said in a sing song voice Sam had warned him usually means Jake does but doesn't want to do it.

"I have a reading assignment." Georgie said with a sigh. He plopped his bag down and got out the book he didn't finish in class and sat at the kitchen table.

"Your mom said you get spelling words every Monday." Jack prompted.

"Yah yah." Georgie answered him and waved his hand dismissively while he turned a page of his book.

Jack's lip twitched in humor. "Let's see the folder Jake." He told the younger of the two boys who was now petting the dog Jack had just let in.

"Finneeee…." Was the long suffering reply he got and the green plastic folder was unceremoniously dumped into his hands.

Jack flipped through the contents. Vocabulary words. Birthday invitation. Field trip reminder form. Jack dug his wallet out of his pocket and put a ten in the envelope in case Carter didn't have any physical cash as it was due tomorrow. Ah! Math work sheet. Half finished. "What's with not finishing the second half of the sheet Jakey?" Jack asked the little boy affably.

"It's dumb. I'd rather draw." He said and went back to petting the dog.

"Yah, me too." Jack admitted.

"You know how to draw? Mama only knows how to draw stick figures."

"I know. She's good at everything else though." He told the little boy. "And being able to do math is really important to be good at drawing."

"No, it's noooottt…" The boy told him and demonstrated he could draw just fine without math.

Jack nodded. "That's a good looking dog. Now add a building." He instructed. Jake obliged and added a green house. "That's good, now make it three dimensional."

"What's three dimensional?"

"May I?" Jack asked and snagged a piece of paper and one of the pencils and proceeded to draw the house in three quarter view. Jake sat staring with his mouth open.

"How did you do that?" He demanded; his voice awed. He'd seen drawings that were finished but he'd never watched someone draw something that way.

"I did math." Jack tapped his head with the pencil. "In my head. Geometry to be exact."

Jake looked at him suspiciously. "Is this just a trick to get me to finish my math assignment?"

Jack gave him as wide eyed and innocent look as he could manage as he shrugged his shoulders. "Why would I do that?"

With a sigh Jake pulled his math homework to him and finished the last few problems.

Jack ruffled his hair affectionately. "Good job, buddy. You can go play now. We'll do your vocabulary words later."

Jake jumped up from the table, hugged Jack and gave him a sloppy kiss before running off to his room. And Jack was officially in love with Sam's youngest child.

He looked at his watch and realized it had gotten later faster than he expected. The kids needed to eat. Crap. He headed to the fridge to check out what was available. There was some burger, it was too late to thaw chicken. Hmm… He wandered off to the pantry to see what she had in the way of pasta. The shelves were looking fairly bare. He'd go shopping for her tomorrow before he came over. Less money she had to spend was more money she could put to her bills. Jack grabbed a couple cans of cheese soup, a box of noodles and a pack of onion soup mix.

By the time Sam made it home the boys were happily eating cheesy skillet burger mac with a side of carrot sticks.

"Wow. That smells really good." Sam said with a tired smile.

"Help yourself, Carter." He told her with a gentle smile as the kids launched themselves at her.

"Did you do your homework?"

There was a chorus of 'yes moms' while Jack got up and got another plate and filled it with food. He set it at the head of the table and pressed her into the seat.

"Enjoy. I'm going to get going." He told her.

She looked up at him confused.

"Early morning meeting with the other Joint Chiefs. Early for me anyway. I'll see you guys tomorrow, ok?"

"Bye Jack." The boys told him in unison, Jake once again tacking 'uncle' onto his version which made Sam give him an odd look. Jack shook his head, telling her he'd had nothing to do with that and headed out the door.


	7. Tuesday through Friday:

**Tuesday through Friday:**

Jack showed up at Sam's on Tuesday with groceries. He figured he'd spool it off as it was easier to go during the day in the middle of the week when there was no one to bump in to. Then lie to her about she could pay him back later. He had no intention of taking her money. It wasn't male pride. The kids being fed was a higher priority and if he was going to eat her food he was going to contribute the groceries.

Wednesday Jack got to Sam's early with the intent of doing some cleaning for her. The house was already getting a little messy with two boys and no Carter home to clean up during the day so he let himself in and found the cleaning supplies. Not much in the way of those either. It was like she was out of almost everything. Jack sighed and closed his eyes against the pain that caused in his heart. No wonder she'd gotten so timid. She must be living paycheck to paycheck, one step away from disaster. Had anything broke in the house she'd have been screwed. Jack made a mental note to check everything in her house was in good working repair and have someone come in and fix anything that wasn't.

Thursday Jack discovered Sam had basic cable which if she wasn't watching much TV made sense. But he'd needed to use the internet to forward some documents and it was snail slow. He'd started by texting her and asking her the wi-fi password so he could do a little work before the boys got home as he'd forgotten to send something. He'd deliberately neglected to do so to irk a particular congressman from Kentucky but he wasn't about to tell her that.

Jack remembered a small desk he'd avoided while cleaning and flipped through until he found the bill for her cable provider. He was not surprised to know that if you knew a woman's social security number, her mother's maiden name and her date of birth that the person on the other end would just assume you were her husband. Jack bumped her service up to whatever the maximum speed was, he didn't pay attention and had the bill re-routed to his credit card then set it to automatic payment. He'd play it that he sometimes had last minute stuff to deal with and didn't want issues with the net going down at a bad time. Blaming the government was nearly an industry past time in their field of work.

Even so, he knew Sam would be angry at him about that but the months of red stamped 'notice of late payment' envelopes from her mortgage lender had made the corners of his mouth drag lower and lower the more he found. They dated back over a year which meant Pete had been behind already when he stuck her with the house.

Jack had scrubbed things until he about took the finish off after that.

Friday it rained. The kids came in and tracked mud in with them. The dog jumped on everything Jack had spent the week scrubbing. Jack sighed. "Guys!" he bellowed. "All right, that's it. Your mom is killing herself to keep a roof over your heads. The least you can do is not make things harder for her." Jack went to the laundry room and pulled out rags and cleaning supplies. "Everyone who's done chores raise your hands." Jack said and put his hand up in demonstration.

The boys looked at each other then at Jack but neither raised a hand. Hutch sat there, his tongue lolling out affably.

Jack nodded firmly, suddenly understanding something else about the family dynamics of how Sam's life had been the last eight years. He stomped down the rage inside that wanted to well up because these kids were innocent pawns in an adult game.

"Boys, real men clean houses, kitchens and latrines." Jack announced in his best impression of Patton, his body posture automatically falling into the proud strut of a commanding officer. "Your mom is not in the military." Jack paused, looked thoughtful. Hoped they didn't catch that. "You will be assigned duty rosters with tasks at your skill levels. Your TO." He pointed at his chest. "That's me. Will train you in your tasks until you have become proficient at which time you will be expected to complete said tasks correctly and without whining." He pointed at Hutch. "You soldier, get an exemption."

Hutch barked making both the boys giggle.

"What is the laundry situation airman?" He asked Georgie.

"My hamper is kind of full." He admitted.

"Mine too." Jake said.

"All right. Each of you take a rag and a bottle of floor cleaner and wipe up this mud. If your rag stops cleaning, rinse it, wring it out… in the laundry tub, not the kitchen sink and get back to it. I'll start handling the laundry." He told them. Jack briefly demonstrated how to spray a muddy spot then wipe it up to the boys before searching for the laundry baskets.

Said laundry baskets were in Sam's bedroom closet for some reason. She must have been planning to do her own after she got off this weekend. He put serious thought into doing it for her before reality slapped him in the head again and reminded him he had no business washing her clothes for her.

He headed down the hall to the boys rooms where he found overflowing hampers. As Jake's room was closer to Sam's, he sorted his things first, piled the baskets together and headed for Georgie's room. He followed the same procedure then realized it was getting late and called Papa Vino's to place an order, knowing what she liked on her pie and ordered salad, bread sticks and a dessert too.

Jack was willing to bet that if pizza was at the end of a day full of chores the boys would happily comply every Friday. Sam hadn't said anything about the groceries. It was possible she hadn't noticed. He'd made sure a meal was ready for her every night when she got home this week. The first couple times she'd eyed him suspiciously but he pointedly ate before the kids started so he could leave when she got home and have some time with her children that wasn't overlapped with cooking, cleaning or anything else that took away what was left of her free time.

That it avoided awkward conversations between them was a huge plus. He didn't know what to say to her after all this time. He knew he made her uncomfortable and sometimes upset by the fact that he cared so it was just best to do what he could and go with minimal direct contact. And he realized he was being a coward but this way he could be there for her and never see the rejection in her eyes.

Lost in thought and carrying three loaded baskets of laundry, he didn't see Sam come in through the door and didn't register her words until seconds after they trailed off.

"Hey, why is the pizza guy out there with enough food for an army? Who ordered that Georgie? You know we never get that many pies. What the…?" she trailed off. The boys were industriously cleaning up the marks from their muddy shoe prints and dog prints and Jack was walking, rumpled past her loaded down with what looked like ever scrap of clothing the boys owned.

"Mom! Mama!" the boys exclaimed together and launched themselves at her.

"Carter, grab my wallet out of my pocket, my hands are full. Give the guy a twenty, will yah? I already paid over the phone."

Sam backed away not about to stuff her hand in her former CO's pants for any reason at all. She put her hands up in supplication.

Jack sighed disgustedly, carried the baskets to the laundry room and stomped out the garage door.

The delivery guy squinted at him. "Colonel Jack?" he asked incredulously.

Jack grinned. "Hey Antonio!"

"So good to see you, my friend! I had thought you gone forever. It is good to see you are once again spending time with the _bellissima_ Samantha." He said with a wide grin. "Ehh?" Antonio winked. "I did not like the cop. Lousy tipper."

Jack chuckled and traded his $20 for the pies and salad. "I'll try to be around more. How's pop?" He asked of the owner who must be over 90 by now.

"Papa has made him retire but I will tell him I saw you my friend. Give signora a kiss for me. This is the first time she has greeted me with a smile in many years. Now I know why!" He grinned and hopped into his car, waving as he drove away.

Jack walked back into the house with dinner. "Soup's on! Go wash your hands airmen!" He yelled to the boys.

Sam stood looking at him. His disgusted sigh that she wouldn't do a simple casual thing like innocently grab his wallet had sent her into a spiral of self doubt. She'd recovered herself enough though to question the bustle of activity she'd walked in to. "Airmen?"

"They tracked mud in all over the kitchen and family room. I was making them clean it up."

"I see." She didn't say anything for a moment. "What do I owe you for the pizza?" Her mouth moved as though she was about to call him sir but he'd given her a hard look and her mouth snapped shut instead.

"Not a damned thing. My treat." His eyes dared her to challenge him on this point. Jack had his pride too.

"Jack. I can afford to feed my own kids." She said with a frown.

Jack narrowed his eyes. Not by the looks of things she couldn't but he wouldn't shame her with that. "I don't expect you to afford to feed me too Carter. It's nearly twice as much food if I eat too and I'm not making the kids dinner then going home and making myself something else. It's just easier to eat here."

"But you never stay." She said in a thoughtful, soft voice, then glanced at him with a guilty start as though she'd had no intention of actually saying it out loud.

"I'm here to take care of the kids so you can get back on track financially and career wise. I leave so you can spend what time you do have with your kids not entertaining me." He told her firmly.

She blinked at him. Unsure if that was the only reason or even the real reason. But his eyes told her he was not lying to her. It was at least some of the reason. "Ok."

"Grab some plates and get some pizza before those two get into it. If they devour it anything like how they devoured the meatloaf last night you won't get a second shot." He told her and squeezed her shoulder affectionately as he passed her to grab a bottle of soda from the pantry.

Sam's expression was troubled. She'd only asked him to watch the boys for a couple hours. He could have spent that time reading for all she cared but he'd taken it on himself to clean up the kitchen, feed the kids every night, make sure their homework was completed, and apparently had been cleaning in his spare time as well.

She felt like Mary Poppins had shown up at her door if Mary Poppins was a six foot tall Air Force general who she was once desperately in love with.


	8. The rest of September

**The rest of September:**

Jack was still leaving after he knew she'd sat down to eat. The weather held for a change and they hadn't had a cold snap yet. Jack had added a couple potted chrysanthemums to the house. One on the kitchen table, another by the front door. They had just appeared one day without an explanation.

Sam stopped trying to pretend she understood what was going on. He had her thoroughly mystified. Her instincts told her she was being courted but he went out of his way to have absolutely minimal contact with her in person. She had him added to her kids' emergency contact information and took Pete off. Another month had passed with no child support check in the mail.

She'd talked to the mortgage company again, explained that she'd recently gotten divorced but had since secured low cost childcare and was working more hours. They had named an unattainable balloon payment to end the collection calls she ignored and she'd flat out refused explaining that while she could add a couple hundred extra on every month now, any more would mean her children simply didn't eat.

"Jack, I need a favor." She'd asked him nervously before he left on her. It was close to the end of the month.

"Anything." He'd told her and it was clear by his tone the sky really was the limit.

She nodded and got up, motioning him to follow her into the dark living room.

For a brief second Jack irrationally hoped she'd make a pass at him but he quashed that idea quickly. She didn't even know he still cared about her in that way and if he could help it, she never would as it would likely ruin the delicately balanced new friendship between them.

"I need to downgrade my car to something I can afford easier. Could you go with me to pick something out?" She looked at him nervous and a little ashamed to have to ask. The Sam Carter he'd known wasn't afraid to pick out a car by herself. But the Sam Carter he knew hadn't been told for eight years to act more like a woman either.

The look he gave her was tender, understanding. She'd looked away in humiliation that he knew why she was asking. "I don't mind at all Sam." He said and had gently brushed his thumb across her cheek. She'd closed her eyes so she wouldn't flinch on him again. He hated himself for having done this to her. "When do you want to go?"

"By the end of the week of you have the time. I could have Vala pick up the kids from school and you could meet me at the dealership." She suggested, not wanting to inconvenience him in any way at all.

He was glad she still had her eyes closed after that brief contact. She wouldn't see the pain in his eyes that even needing his help, she didn't want to spend any time with him before or after. "I'm free Thursday." He told her.

Sam nodded slowly. "Thank you, I…" But she was unable to articulate what she wanted to say and he shrugged it off.

"I told you. Any time Carter." He said warmly and went to go say goodnight to the boys.

* * *

"Hey Sam, how's it going?" Daniel asked her. She'd been putting in a few more hours lately and while still not yet herself, seemed to be a bit less stressed out. She was sitting in the commissary when he came in for lunch, clearly having already eaten but loitering.

"Hi Daniel. Pretty good actually. Hey, can you take the kids Thursday? Vala would need to pick them up at school. I need to get a more affordable car and I don't want to drag the kids along if I don't have to. They would be bored to death. Especially Georgie."

Daniel thought about it for a moment. "I think I can arrange that. You seem happier these days. It's good to see you more your old self."

"It was that bad, huh?" She asked him with a sad frown.

Daniel shrugged. "The divorce was hard on you Sam. Everyone understands."

She sighed. "It wasn't just the divorce. I was like that before I left Pete and I know it." She admitted to him.

"Hey, don't beat yourself up about it. You're doing better now. That's what matters right?"

"I suppose so." She said stirring her coffee. She realized something and looked at him oddly.

"I thought sure by now…"

"Huh? Thought what?"

"What? Nothing. I just figured with Jack back in town you guys would have spent some time together that's all." She said with a shrug. "Forget I mentioned it."

"I, ah, didn't know he was in town Sam. We… well, we haven't talked in a long time." He admitted.

Sam looked at him. She'd thought he hadn't mentioned Jack around her because he was being considerate of the breakup upsetting her but it seemed that wasn't why. "Daniel, when was the last time you talked to Jack outside of work?"

Daniel stared up and away and blew out a breath. She deserved the truth. "Not since your wedding Sam." He admitted.

"Oh."

"I, ah, blew up at him I suppose because, well, it's a long story that probably doesn't matter now."

"They threatened him Daniel. And when he told them he didn't care that he'd just quit…" she sighed. "Then they threatened me apparently." That laugh that made Jack afraid for her sanity came out of her again. "For all the good that did I dusted my career myself. I didn't need the government to screw me over."

"No, Sam, you let yourself believe someone was asking what they did of you out of love. You had no way of knowing the real reason. That's why men like him get away with it for so long." Daniel insisted.

"Daniel, I have the highest IQ of anyone in this building. After the _last_ time I shouldn't have fallen for a narcissist a second time."

Daniel winced.

"The really stupid thing is I didn't marry Pete because I loved him. I married him because I was pregnant and I panicked." She admitted.

Daniel took her hand. "You should have talked to us Sam. We would have helped you through everything."

"I know." She swiped away a tear. "I think if he'd told me at the time I wouldn't have gone running to Pete. I just…"

Daniel slung an arm around her shoulders. "So what have you and Jack been up to?" He asked her affably, trying to get her to not think about her terrible marriage and why she even ended up in it.

"We haven't."

Daniel tilted his head. "Oooo… kkk…"

She shook her head and sniffled once then shrugged. "He dropped by and offered to babysit the kids so I could work more hours and that's it. He leaves when I get home."

He side eyed her. "And whose idea was this?"

"As far as I know, his." She replied.

"Riiigghhtt…" he said thoughtfully.


	9. October

**October: **

"Mooooommm... I don't want to wear Georgie's old costume." Jake whined.

Sam sighed. "It's only for one year, sweetie. Next year you can pick what you want." She told him, trying not to overtly plead.

"But mom, I don't even like Pikachu."

Jack wandered into the kitchen with a white box of donuts in his hands. "I come bearing burnt offerings." He announced and shook the box enticingly.

"Donuts!" Jake shouted loud enough to make Sam shake her head for the ring in her ear.

"One donut." Sam told him firmly.

"But-"

"We can go down to zero donuts." She said in exasperation and didn't make eye contact with Jack, afraid she might laugh.

"Fine." Jake pouted but only took one of the proffered fried treats before leaving the room.

"What was that about?" He asked, his eyes tracking Jake as he ran out of the room.

She sighed. "Even with budgeting I can only afford one costume this year. Speaking of which would you like to explain my cable bill?" She looked at him archly.

Jack wanted nothing more than to lean over and kiss her affectionately for that half amused half annoyed look on her face. Instead he sat and nudged the box towards her. "I hate the guy but I don't want to deal with his hillbilly bullshit if he catches wind of what I'm up to so I had your net speed upgraded." He shrugged and stuffed half a donut in his mouth. Jack chewed blissfully and swallowed before he spoke again. "Since the government expects me to work against my will I expensed your internet. Not like I could expense mine what with all the premium porn I watch." He shrugged.

Sam snorted "I am never sitting on your couch again." She said laughing.

Jack grinned. It was the first time she'd laughed in front of him. Possibly the first time she'd genuinely laughed in a long time and it was like a balm on his soul. He longed to ask her if that meant he had a chance that she'd ever darken his door again but he was already pushing his luck with why he was there.

"Those are a bribe by the way." He told her after she'd chosen a chocolate dipped chocolate cake as he'd predicted and had broken off a chunk and eaten it.

"Why am I being bribed with fat pills on a Saturday morning exactly?" Not turning down the treat just yet.

"Two things. The first one is easy. The kids haven't gone to the park in a while. If you want some time to yourself I'll have them back at whatever time you specify, I'd really like you to go too though." He admitted.

"Are you lonely General?"

"No, they outnumber me." He said with amusement though she'd been right, he was.

"All right, I have some stuff to do, I'll go with you next time to the park. What's the other reason?"

"I have to drop by the base Monday and I'd really like you to not avoid me this time." He admitted.

Sam looked at him thoughtfully. She'd been protecting herself from him hurting her again in the past but it was clear now her actions had hurt him just as much. If she hadn't been trying so hard to protect herself she might never have married Pete.

Jack watched her thoughts chase each other across her eyes and held his breath.

Finally the solder won in the end and she nodded.

"Thank you." He told her simply and reached out and squeezed her hand impulsively. She looked at him a little startled and he smiled reassuringly. This was the furthest he'd gotten when it came to getting her to trust him since he'd come back into her life. He honestly figured two months was doing pretty good considering how deeply he'd FUBARed the entire thing.

She did, however, tug her hand back and folded it in her lap.

"Right." He said. Jack got up. "Boys! Get your coats! We're going to the park!" he yelled up the stairs.

A trio of noise ran shrieking and barking down the stairs.

Sam seemed to have recovered. "Do as you're told. Don't sass Jack. Have fun and be back at lunch time." Jack was pretty sure that last part was for him."

"Bye mom! Love you!" Georgie told her and smacked her on the cheek with his lips as he grabbed a donut.

"Love you mama. Have fun while we're gone." Jake gave her a kiss on the lips.

Not to be out done Hutch licked Sam enthusiastically. She laughed. "Love you too Hutch. Go and have fun guys."

"We'll be back for lunch." Jack assured her and looked in her eyes. He doubted he had any right to get away with kisses or declarations so he told her with his eyes, how deeply he cared about her still. He knew she still understood when her lips parted in surprise.

* * *

They started by taking Hutch for a walk through the hiking trails so he'd sit and hang out with Jack while the boys played after.

"How come he can't just run around?" Georgie asked.

"If a park ranger came by and saw he didn't have a leash on, they would give me a ticket but because your mom is on his license they would make her pay it." Jack explained.

"That's not very nice. Then mom wouldn't be able to afford my costume either." The boy frowned. "Sometimes I wish…" He slid his hand into Jack's free hand.

Jack squeezed his hand. Like him, when Georgie was ready to talk, he would. Charlie had been a chatterbox like Jake. Currently Jake was happily pointing out every mushroom he saw to the dog who enthusiastically looked in every spot the boy pointed to. But Georgie was more taciturn.

"Can I ask you something Jack?" he said, not taking his hand from Jack's.

"What's that kiddo?"

"Did you and mom have a fight?"

"Well, not recently." Jack admitted.

"It was bad though, wasn't it?"

"Yah. It was a bad fight. I lost her as a friend for a really long time because of it."

"Mom's been different since you came back."

"Oh?"

"Yah."

He didn't say anything for a while as they walked.

"Do you think my mom and dad will make up like you and mom did?"

Jack blew out a slow breath. "That's a tough question. I honestly don't know. Possibly if your dad is ever sorry enough and works on being her friend again."

"I hope not." Georgie said fiercely.

"Your feelings might change as you get older. Right now you're angry because your dad hurt your mom."

Georgie gave him the kind of sarcastic look Jack would give someone for saying something supremely stupid.

"Ouch." Was all Jack said of the look.

Georgie smirked then sobered. "I don't think he loves us."

"Now I'm sure that's not true buddy."

"Don't bullshit me Jack." Georgie told him and before Jack could admonish him for his language Georgie continued. "Mom used to call him so he'd talk to us, you know, before the divorce was finalized." He sighed. "You know what I felt every time he didn't pick up?"

Jack gave him a curious look.

"Glad." His eyes filed a little. "Jack, I felt glad when he didn't pick up because when he did, he and mom would argue and he didn't want to talk to us anyway."

Jack squeezed his hand. "If I could have been, I would have been here for you and your mom the whole time Georgie." He told the boy and meant it.

"If you had been here, dad never would have been so mean to mom."

Jack sighed.

"I mean it. He hated you because he was afraid of you. He told one of his cop friends that's why he ran you off when they got married. Because he knew mom loved you and that you'd do anything for her."

Jack nodded. "He was right. I would. Anything at all."

Georgie looked up and regarded him with his blue eyes so much like his mother's. "It makes me really mad that you've loved me more since school started than my dad has my whole life."

Jack stopped walking and crouched in front of Georgie. "I can't speak for your dad, Georgie, but I love you and your brother very much." His hand was on the boy's shoulder and he hugged him tightly when Georgie flung himself into Jack's arms.

"I wish _you_ were my dad." The boy sobbed against Jack's flannel jacket.

Jack lowered his face into the boy's hair and kissed the top of his head. Sometimes I wish I was your dad too kiddo, he thought sadly.

"Uncle Jack! I found a salamander! Come look before Hutch eats it!" Jake broke in and Georgie and Jack laughed a little as Georgie wiped his nose on his sleeve.

"It's ok to feel the way you do Georgie. I know your mom loves you very much and I love you too. If you ever need me for anything, all you have to do is ask, ok?" He gave the boy a serious look so he'd know Jack was telling him the truth.

"Ok. Will you buy Jake a Halloween costume so he quits complaining that he doesn't want to be Pikachu?"

Jack chuckled. "I'll handle it." He promised.


	10. That Monday

**That Monday:**

Jack had arrived on time as that was his habit even though technically it was at his discretion when he showed up anywhere these days. Hank greeted him in his office.

"Jack. I was starting to wonder if you didn't plan to see us while you're here at all." He told his friend as he reached out a hand and they shook as old friends do.

Jack plopped down in a chair facing Hank's desk and stretched his long legs out as he took off his cover. "I've got a favor to ask." He smiled tightly. "A semi personal one."

Three hours later, SG-1 had joined Dr. Lam, General O'Neill, and General Landry in the briefing room. Sam was a little mystified why she was there as well unless there was some sort of technological breakthrough they expected of her in the field of interstellar medicine.

"Dr. Lam, your assessment?" Landry asked her. They had long since stopped being at odds with each other. Hank wasn't positive he was a fan of her being romantically involved with his forward team's leader but he also wasn't invested in having another situation like the last time as they all knew how that had ended.

"Lt. Colonel Carter is fit for active field work sir." She told her father.

"Good. Colonel Mitchell. Is it your assessment that Dr. Moravia would be a good fit for SG-7?"

Bill had talked to Hank and Jack about an hour ago about his position on the teams. While he was an excellent scientist and enjoyed his position, he agreed with their assessment that if the option was available, he should be on a long term scientific team rather than first contact where he was. SG-7 had briefly been restructured as a military unit but had returned to a scientific team when Jack was briefly base commander and had to repopulate the abandoned team roster.

"I am told SG-7 would be happy to have him sir." Cam told Landry with a smile.

Hank smiled. "Then it is my pleasure to reinstate Lt. Colonel Samantha Carter to her previous position as scientific expert of SG-1."

"Sir?" Sam asked, her voice confused.

"If you want the position that is Sam. I'd understand if you feel it's too much of an obligation under your current circumstances." Hank said in his reasonable tone.

"Um, I'll have to talk to my childcare provider sir."

"Take the job, Carter. You have a go." Jack muttered under his breath and she snapped her eyes to him, acknowledging him for the first time since a polite greeting of 'sir' when she'd entered the room.

Sam asked him with her eyes if he was serious and received an imperceptible nod. It meant him crashing at her house overnight and making sure the kids got to school the next day. It was a level of commitment from him that went far beyond coming over in the afternoon and making sure the boys had dinner.

Sam looked around at SG-1. Her team. Daniel, Teal'c, Vala and Cam all looked at her expectantly. Daniel was leaning forward. Vala looked as if she could barely contain herself. Cam just looked smug like this had been his plan all along and Teal'c lowered his eyes and nodded slightly with a small smile. His intent clear. Welcome home.

She looked at Hank who had a bland expression on his face, never one to show his cards then at Jack who couldn't have been telegraphing 'TAKE THE JOB' louder with his eyes if he tried. The rest of his face was impassive and blank.

He was giving her life back to her one piece at a time as he could manage. She was glad this wasn't when she'd still been breast feeding. She would have burst into tears from the hormones. As it was, she swallowed hard and nodded. "Thank you sir." She said, her voice thick with emotion.

The briefing room erupted in cheers and Landry lost all control of the situation. Everyone got up and crowded around Sam, even Bill who shook her hand and hugged her in congratulations for her reinstatement.

Jack snagged Hank's sleeve and they stood back from the impromptu celebration.

"You're sticking around then?' Hank asked his old friend. Still worried that Jack might leave Sam in the lurch again.

"I wouldn't have recommended it if I didn't think it was doable." He said softly.

"What about that target on your back?"

"I might have a contingency plan." He smiled tightly. "With your help of course."

"Jack, that is a terrible idea."

"Then come up with a better one because she doesn't deserve what happened just because she had the bad taste to love the wrong guy."

Hank was inclined to think Sam had loved exactly the right guy but married the wrong one. "George should have gotten you two a dispensation at the start. Then none of this would have happened."

"George knew I needed her watching my six in the field more than I needed her warming my six in my bunk. They have to let me retire some day Hank and there's nothing they can do to her after that."

"But in the meantime you have a contingency plan."

"You betcha."

"How do you expect me to explain away an AWOL Joint Chief of Staff exactly?" Hank asked him in a soft huff.

Jack shrugged nonchalantly. "Not my pay grade." He said and lightly punched Hank's shoulder.

"Great." Hank said under his breath and moved to the ecstatic group of people gaggling around Sam. "Welcome back to full duty Sam." He told her with a smile.

"Thank you sir. I won't let you down."

"See that you don't. All right, people take this to the commissary. I have briefings to attend to."

There was a chorus of 'yes sir' as they filed out, still hugging.

Teal'c looked over the group and made eye contact with Jack. Teal'c bent his head and smiled slightly before turning to leave with the others.

"What was that all about?" Hank asked Jack once the room was clear.

"That's his version of 'thank you' combined with 'you did the right thing'."

Hank chuckled. "As long as you know what he meant I guess."


	11. Early November:

The weather changed at the end of October as it often does. Jack's computer case now currently contained one of the most precious gifts he'd been given for his birthday. The boys had written and drawn him a comic book based on one of the stories their mom had told them about the legendary Colonel O'Neill fighting space snakes. If he hadn't loved her before he would now.

Jack ignored the land line ringing while he cleaned. Anyone who needed him would call his cell.

The phone stopped ringing and a moment later the machine kicked in. A voice that made Jack curl his lip in disgust greeted the machine and then he said something that made Jack see a red haze of fury. "Look, tell your attorney she can drag me into court all she wants. You wanted a divorce. You figure out how to pay for the kids _you_ wanted."

Jack glared hard at the machine. "You son of a bitch." Jack resisted his instincts to pick up the phone and cuss out the man on the other end or better yet, grab his car keys and drive to the precinct to punch that piece of crap she'd married in person.

His mood did not abate when the boys came home and picking up on Jack's unusually foul mood; the boys quietly finished their homework and just as quietly went upstairs to read.

Jack sat on the couch glaring at the walls and wishing for a scotch and a cigarette. He was still furious when Sam got home from work. He'd been angry enough not to trust himself to cook and had instead scrubbed the bathroom floors until they could be eaten off of and ordered delivery Chinese. The kids had been ecstatic.

Jack ate his beef and broccoli as though it had personally offended him. Sam came into him glaring at the mostly empty container, chop sticks still in his hand. The boys had once again fled to their rooms.

Acting on instinct Sam stood next to him and reached out to put a hand on his cheek in concern. "What's wrong?" she asked and he turned to her with a look of desperation on his face.

"Please stop me from going over there and killing him Sam." He told her, his voice fierce and raw. It was how his voice had sounded when a Goa'uld possessed Adrian Conrad had kidnapped her X-303 and all.

Sam sighed. Somehow she knew who Jack meant and glanced over at the blinking light of the answering machine. He only ever called and left his nasty grams during the day when he knew she would be at work. She should have warned Jack or turned the volume off but had it been the school he wouldn't have heard it.

Sam moved away and opened an upper cabinet and pulled out a bottle of scotch and poured them each a short glass. She pressed one into his hand that kept twitching into a fist then sat next to him. Her leg just barely brushing his.

"I should have been here. He never would have pulled any of this shit on you if I'd been here like Dad asked me to be." He looked up at her, his eyes fierce with anger and protectiveness. "I thought I was protecting you Sam. I swear I thought I was protecting you from those bastards and all I did was ruin your life."

Sam sighed heavily and slugged back her drink before putting her hand on his chin again and gently turning his face to hers. "It wasn't your fault Jack. You had no way of knowing what kind of man he'd turn out to be."

"Selmak knew." Jack said, his voice still strangled and angry. He finally threw back the drink she'd poured him and grabbed the bottle and refilled his glass. "Selmak knew." He whispered.

Sam closed her eyes. Her expression grew sad. "I should have listened to him too. I did... it was just…"

Jack nodded miserably. "I'm so sorry, Sam. I never wanted any of this to happen to you." He looked at her. "I still want to kill him."

She reached up and put a hand on either side of his neck, gently stroking his left cheek with her right hand. "Get in line." She said and there was a touch of humor to the quirk of her lips.

"Georgie said he didn't think his dad loved him. I thought it was just normal post divorce feelings of abandonment." He told her.

Sam shook her head. "You've given them more love and attention as their babysitter the last couple months then they have gotten from Pete in years." She admitted.

"God Sam, I'm so sorry." His hand crept up to hold hers on his cheek and he turned just enough to kiss the edge of her palm.

She closed her eyes, dipped her head searching for control.

"C'mere." He said softly and tugged her gently into his lap.

They sat, holding each other tightly for so long Jack's legs fell asleep on the hard oak chair and there was a damp spot in his hair where she'd unwillingly cried for what they had lost but her shoulder was damp where he'd cried too.

A pair of heads peeked around the corner of the wall, watching silently. "Do you think they're gonna kiss?" Jake's voice came to them in a loud whisper.

"Shhh… they can hear you." Georgie whispered loudly back.

Sam chuckled and Jack outright laughed.

"Come here boys." Jack ordered them.

The boys came out from behind the wall, giggling. Jack's expression was still serious though and they sobered quickly.

"Georgie, I want to promise you and your brother something."

"Ok."

"Wacha gonna promise Uncle Jack?"

"No matter what, even if your mom and I aren't getting along, I will always, _always_ be here for you both."

Georgie tilted his head, gauging the truth of Jack's statement. He seemed satisfied with what he saw in Jack's face and came and hugged his mother and Jack together.

Not to be out done Jake climbed into Sam's lap and wrapped a pudgy little arm around each of their necks then giving them each a kiss. "You guys should kiss too. To show you mean it Uncle Jack." He insisted.

Sam colored and looked away. "It's all right Jake. Jack doesn't need to kiss me to prove he's telling the truth."

"Don't you want to kiss Uncle Jack? He's really nice and he made you a promise."

Jack was trying fairly unsuccessfully not to laugh. He finally gave in and hugged both boys tightly between himself and Sam. "My legs have fallen asleep." He admitted.

"All right, everyone off Uncle Jack." Sam ordered the boys and got up herself. "Are you all right?" she asked in concern when Jake kneed him in the crotch as he got down and Jack winced.

"I'll live." He said through gritted teeth

A small twitter of a giggle escaped in spite of her efforts.

"No giggling, Carter." He told her nearly automatically and they both stopped and stared at each other in something akin to shock. Could they really be this ok?

Sam though was the first to look away. She walked over to the machine and popped out the cassette and put in a fresh one. She wrote something on the label and put it in her purse. "I'll be a little late tomorrow. I want to drop this off with my attorney."

Jack looked at her for a long moment, his expression thoughtful. "Sam?"

She glanced at the stairs then back at him. "Are you ready to go? I'll walk you out." She told him.

Jack seemed confused for the barest of moments then replied "Ah." He nodded. "Do you have his address? I can drop it off for you on the way over, save you the trip."

"Her actually, and, um thank you. I'd appreciate it."

Jack nodded and shoved his hands into his jacket pockets. It had gotten cool enough that he'd zipped the sheep skin liner back into his leather coat. "So?"

"I know it means I'll never see a dime of child support but Lorin suggested I sever his parental rights if this keeps going on. He never calls them, he doesn't make arrangements to see them, during the divorce he'd tell them he was coming to see them then just not show up. It's why my hours were cut back so much." She looked like she wanted to say more but stopped.

"Sam, I get it. I'd probably do the same thing in your shoes. Just be careful, ok? If you are going to do this keep it quiet, don't show your hand until you have a go, all right?"

She smiled sadly. "That sounds like your poker advice." She told him.

He waved a hand dismissively. "Mission advice, poker, how to navigate a divorce - not much difference between the three." He told her with a bit of a smile. "I'm three for three there."

"Jack… I… Thank you." She gave him a shy smile. "The boys asked me to invite you to Thanksgiving dinner. If you have other plans, it's all right. I told them you might already have something scheduled."

"Carter, my dance card isn't exactly full right now. Tell them I said thank you for inviting me and I'll be happy to come." He reached up and squeezed her shoulder. "Hang in there Carter." And got in his SUV and left.

Sam had never heard four more loaded words in her life. What else was she going to do?


	12. Late November:

Jack walked into the restaurant and snagged the arm of a passing greeter. "Mitchell?"

"Ah yes! Right this way sir." The man in a light grey jacket told him and lead Jack to a table in the back that couldn't possibly be big enough for the 'family' dinner Cam had said he wanted SG-1 to have together tonight before Thanksgiving. The only other occupant at the table was… Daniel.

Daniel looked up at who was coming to the table and his eyes widened as Jack sat.

"Where's Vala?"

"Home. Where's Sam?"

"Home, I assume. I don't live there." He said defensively.

"We've been hoodwinked." Daniel intoned dryly.

"You betcha. Hogswaggled even. I'll just..." He pointed back at the door and started to stand.

"Sit down Jack. They went to the trouble to get us in the same room alone we may as well do what they want."

"We didn't exactly part on the best of terms." Jack reminded the younger man.

"Well if you'd told me the truth at the time." Daniel huffed.

Jack rose.

"Sit down Jack. Sam told me why you did what you did. I can't say I agree with how you let it play out but... I get it. You had your reasons." Daniel said with grudging agreement.

"I should have found another way." Jack admitted.

Daniel shrugged. "Possibly. Or possibly there wasn't a solution Jack."

"This doesn't seem like the kind of place we need to have this conversation does it." Jack pointed out.

"Bar?"

"Bar." Jack agreed and they got up and headed for a quiet dive they used to go to when one of them needed to talk and alcohol needed to be involved.

"Soooo…" Daniel said as he fiddled with his beer. "Long time no see."

Jack raised both eyebrows at him.

"In general." Daniel hedged.

"Puns Daniel?" Jack asked him mildly and took a long sip of his own beer.

Daniel shrugged. "Jack…."

Oh here we go. Jack thought sarcastically.

"I was thinking. Why didn't you tell Sam what was really going on?"

Jack sighed. "I tried to." He waved his hand in a vague gesture. "It came out all wrong, of course, and by the time I got up the nerve to talk to her a couple weeks later she was already involved with the cop again. Then I got the scuttlebutt a week later that she was pregnant and I knew I had to let her go, that it was her decision and I needed to respect that."

Daniel looked at his beer bottle for a long time. "I don't think she would have married him if you had told her the truth, even if she was pregnant."

Jack thought about that for a while. "Probably not but if she'd waited around for me that asshole would have followed through on his threats." He put up a hand. "Don't get me wrong, what she did to herself was bad enough, but it's fixable. She's back on track to make full bird within a year if she fights for it and she could make General in a couple years after that. I'd like to see her running SGC before I retire." Jack admitted.

"So that's the endgame. Sam in charge of the SGC?"

"What else is there?"

Daniel gave him that incredulous look he'd given him when Jack had admitted he planned to blow up all of Abydos to get rid of Ra. "Jack!"

"Daniel." Jack's reply was nothing more than a tired sigh. "Let it go Daniel."

"No Jack. Not this time. You picked out a ring. You were planning to propose. Yes, that asshole screwed that up for you but I know you Jack. If you had gotten over her you would have moved on with your life, met someone, gotten married."

"Who says I didn't?" Jack challenged him.

"I really doubt even you are a big enough asshole to leave a wife behind in DC while you take care of your ex-fiancé's kids." Daniel told him with a sharp edge to his voice.

"Watch it." Jack said and glared at Daniel over his beer bottle.

"Just admit you're still in love with her." Daniel said almost absently.

"What difference would it make? She moved on Daniel. Got the life I always told her to get." He sighed.

"No, she didn't. She panicked and married the first guy that wanted her."

Jack looked at Daniel hard.

Daniel figured he already had one foot in his mouth so he may as well say what was on his mind. "I don't think Georgie is his." He admitted to the older man.

Jack's previously agitated hands stilled. "What?"

Daniel blew out a slow breath. "I think she was pregnant when she got home. I could be wrong but I think Georgie is your son, Jack." Daniel looked down at his beer, afraid to meet Jack's eyes. Afraid to see the realization Jack would be having that if Daniel was right, that he'd missed out on nearly a decade of his child's life.

"Sam wouldn't keep something like that from me, even if she was angry." Jack said firmly. Knowing for certain he was dead to rights.

"No. She wouldn't. But I don't think she knew either. She was so upset when she came home that she didn't even go home. She was afraid I'd call you so she went the only place she didn't think you would look."

"The cop."

"Yah. I think he took advantage of her, Jack, and when she realized she was pregnant I think she just panicked and married him so she wouldn't have to be a single mom because she didn't think she could go back to you pregnant with another man's child."

Jack sighed heavily and drank half his bottle of beer in a single pull. "I hate to admit it but she was probably safer doing what she did. If they had even thought that was my boy they would have destroyed her just to make a point." He said grimly.

"I think Pete knew, or at least, he suspected. He never loved Georgie as far as I can tell and he only tolerates Jake." Daniel told him.

"He's a shit, dad. It shouldn't matter if the boy is mine or his, you marry a woman with a kid you sign up to be its parent." Jack said, his tone acidic.

Daniel nodded in agreement. "Jack."

"Daniel." Jack replied dryly

"Let Sam tell you herself. When she's ready. If… if she did figure it out, she had her reasons for not telling you."

"She has."

"Er, which… part?"

"She knows I'm his father."

"How do you know? I know she didn't tell you because you would have said so when I started explaining my theory."

"She never calls the cop their father, only Pete."

"Ok? And that means?"

"My parents got divorced when I was a kid. It was ugly. They never referred to each other by name after that. Only as your mother, your father. All my friends with divorced parents did the same thing."

"I never took you for a sociologist, Jack." Daniel said in mild awed amusement.

"You pick up a few things hanging around geeks all the time." Jack told him dryly.

"I don't know if I should be touched or offended." Daniel admitted.

They drank in companionable silence after that, trading occasional remarks about work.


	13. First week of December:

**First week of December:**

"Bye Jack!" Georgie yelled as he ran out the door. Jack grinned and waved, Georgie's brother was hot on his heals, having stopped to give Jack a kiss goodbye first.

He fiercely loved those kids. Sure he'd missed out on a big portion of Georgie's life, and Jake's too, who should have been his son as well if things had turned out different or perhaps Jake would have been a girl instead. He'd have liked to give Sam a daughter. Woah. Break. Get that idea out of your head Jack. Sam is just your friend and she cares about you but you torched that bridge nearly nine years ago.

Jack sighed. He worried about her out there but he knew Cam, Teal'c, Daniel and Vala were watching her six. She'd come home safe. She always did.

And he had no one to blame but himself. He could have been a selfish bastard and let her just run R&D under the mountain for as long as she wanted to but he wasn't going to stand by and watch her dreams suck away if he had anything at all to say about it.

He'd take care of the boys. Be a good father to both of them if they were his or not. When Georgie was a little older, possibly if Sam got the cop's parental rights severed, he'd have a DNA test done to prove to the boy that he did have a father who loved him all along. He just hadn't known.

It made him a little sad to know Georgie would be relieved to find out he man who raised him from infancy wasn't his biological father. Jack had never treated Cassie as anything other than his own daughter from the start. Sam too. Especially after they lost Janet. Janet had left a big hole in all their hearts. Especially Daniel's.

Jack thought about Daniel a lot lately. Jack was a stubborn man and Daniel wasn't the type to keep fighting Jack when he'd made a decision. They had argued at Sam's wedding, Daniel insisting first to Jack then to Mark to do something, anything to stop this travesty. Jack had refused and Mark, knowing the real reason for the break up, had stood with him. It had effectively ended their friendship for years. They were civil on base, the rare times Jack was required to travel to Colorado for work, but without Sam's love to glue them together they had remained distant and not spoken more than a dozen words to each other in the years since. Jack had lost more than just the woman he loved that day. He'd lost his best friends as well as a child he didn't even know was his.

One look at that boy's hair should have been his first clue but Jack hadn't been looking. He'd seen Carter eyes and dimples and stopped there. Hell, Jake looked more like him than Georgie did and he definitely hadn't been around for _that_.

Daniel was right though. He still loved Sam. Would still do anything for her. She'd used that to keep him alive a couple times. Knew he'd do what she begged of him against his own will because his love was stronger than any sense of self preservation he had.

Jack mused a bit more then grabbed his car keys and headed out the door.

Half an hour later he was pulling up into the attorney office where he'd dropped the tape with Pete's hate mail to.

"Do you have an appointment?" The receptionist asked.

"No. I'm here to see Lorin Kline. It's about the Shanahan boys." Jack told her with his best charming smile.

The receptionist frowned deeply. "Have a seat, someone will call you."

Jack wondered at her change in attitude.

Ten minutes later a paralegal asked for him to follow her and he headed down the hallway through the warren of small desks filled with people running Dictaphones and answering phone calls. He looked around him in interest when he was led to a very small office with a door and told to sit, that the attorney would be with him shortly.

Another ten minutes passed. Lorin walked in and looked at him in surprise. "I, I'm very sorry, I was expecting Detective Shanahan." She told him.

"Sorry to disappoint." He said dryly.

"No, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have assumed. Why are you here about the Shanahan boys? Are you a PI? Because the divorce is already settled."

"No, I'm a friend of Sam's. I dropped the tape off a few days ago."

"Ah! The charming gentleman friend!" She grinned. "My staff has a unique way of describing who enters the building. When you said you were here about the boys I thought you were her ex-husband looking to give me the run around."

"Does he show up to do that a lot? Because I'd like to stay and have a bit of a chat with him if he does." Jack said with a dark light in his eyes.

"Oh I like you. Can I offer you a job just standing in the entry looking mean?"

Jack grinned.

"Nope, that ruined it. You're too attractive to stay scary. What can I do for you today… Mr.?"

Jack chuckled. "Sam tells me you have recommended she have Shanahan's parental rights severed."

"I'm sure you know I can't just tell you my client's intentions and you still haven't given me a name."

Jack fished in a pocket for his wallet and handed her a card. "Hypothetically, what's the process for adoption?"

Lorin looked at the card then up at him. "Hypothetically, General O'Neill, the state prefers you be married to one of the parents."

"And if I'm not but said parent consents to the adoption?" He smiled. "Hypothetically."

"Hypothetically if she doesn't want to marry you, I'm very available." She said with an amused grin. "But it's still an option."

"Attorney client privilege goes both ways right? You can't tell her details of our conversation until I give you permission?"

"Absolutely, sir."

"All right. Not so hypothetically I have strong reason to believe Georgie is my biological son."

Lorin looked at him speculatively. "And Jake?"

Jack shook his head. "Georgie might have been conceived shortly before we broke up, I wasn't around for Jake. Sorry."

"Drat. I was hoping that reprobate hadn't bred at all." She admitted. "Any chance you sleepwalk, General?"

Jack chuckled. "Sorry. I wish I was."

Lorin smiled that soft smile women sometimes get when they realize you like kids. "Are there two of you by chance?"

Jack coughed. "My nephew is 25. I doubt you like them that young." Jack said. Awkward.

"Oh well. Anyway, I'll need a retainer fee which is not refundable if she tells you no dice. I wish to warn you, it can take years for an adoption to finalize in Colorado. It's good that you are starting the process now while she's getting things rolling on her end but there's only so much I can do until his rights are severed."

"That's fine. Cost isn't an issue. I'm not going anywhere. I'd like to start proceedings for both boys."

She looked at him a little gob-smacked. "Both boys?"

"Both." Jack said with an affable grin. "Have you seen the little guy? He's the cutest kid ever."

Lorin's face lit in a broad smile. "Both boys." She tilted her head. "You know, General, I can't figure out if it's her you're this in love with or the kids?"

Jack grinned back.


	14. Second Week of December:

_**AN: **So this is weird... Yesterday's chapter never posted on here. Sorry about that folks! Instead, you get two today!_

**Second Week of December:**

Sam rolled over and coughed. Shit she thought. Not now. I don't have time for this now. She sniffled and groaned pathetically. Dammit. She slowly worked her way out of bed and hacked painfully all the way to her bathroom.

Georgie who was good about getting up without an alarm came into her bedroom. "Mom, are you ok?"

"I'm all right Georgie." But she was wracked with a heavy cough again and felt dizzy when she was done. "Just give me a few minutes."

Georgie frowned and left the room. Sam coughed some more.

Georgie however took matters into his own hands. A year ago he'd have called Aunt Vala but his first thought this time was call Jack. The phone rang three times before he picked up. "O'Neill," he said groggily. It was barely 0600.

"Jack? Mom's sick." He said in a small voice.

"How sick, Georgie?" His voice was instantly alert.

"She's coughing really hard and looks like she feels really bad."

Jack thought. Ok, probably a cold or the flu. "Sit tight, kiddo. Start getting ready for school. I'll be over shortly to take care of your mom, ok?"

"Thanks Jack." Georgie said, sounding relieved.

Jack hung up and smiled softly. The boy's first instinct when his mom was sick was to call him. He didn't want to think too deeply about how obvious his feelings for Sam must be, that even a seven year old could read him like a book. Arguably, it was his seven year old and he was fairly certain that he was a reasonably perceptive guy when it came to things like that.

Jack pulled on a clean tee shirt and sweatpants figuring he'd be spending his day playing nurse. He looked at his watch. The kids needed to get to school but he should get her tea and some other things. He decided to delegate.

First things first, he dialed the base. When Hank picked up, Jack quickly filled him in on Georgie's call and let him know he'd update him when he had more info.

His next call was to Vala. "Hey, you guys are probably off rotation for a couple days, Sam is sick, if I text you a list can you bring over exactly what's on the list?"

"Absolutely darling. Is she all right?"

"No idea, Georgie called me, told me she sounds like she has the flu. Well, he told me what she sounds like and it sounds like the flu. Anyway, I'll text you a list. If anyone on base gives you shit, tell them they can call me."

Vala laughed. "Oh I can't wait until someone does."

Jack chuckled. "I owe yah."

"It's Sam. No you don't."

Jack got a warm feeling in his chest. He could really get to like Vala.

A few moments later he pulled up in Sam's driveway. He went in through the garage and followed the sound of coughing. "Boys? Are you ready for school?" he yelled up the stairs as he headed for the kitchen to make Sam a cup of tea and get breakfast going.

Hutch sat at his feet and whined.

"Normal dogs bark when someone comes in."

Hutch woofed.

"Now you're just mocking me." He told the dog and went to the back door to let him out.

Jack started enough oatmeal for the boys and went to the fridge to see if there was any fruit.

"Boys!" he bellowed up the stairs.

Jack huffed. "Could have been doing this for seven years." He muttered to himself as he typed out the list of things he wanted Vala to pick up for Sam.

He bounded up the stairs to see what was taking them so long and found both kids sitting worried on their mom's bed. Ah. He ruffled both their heads as he walked up to her. "How's the patient, Doc?" He asked Georgie.

"Mama's sick. Is she going to die?" Jake asked. "I saw a movie about that and the mommy died and then they got a new mommy and she was mean to them so they all ran away together and lived in the woods."

"Carter, what are you letting these kids watch?" He asked her chuckling. He leaned forward and pulled the blanket she'd pulled over her head down a little so he could brush his lips on her forehead. She was burning up.

Sam whined 'go away' and pulled the blanket back over her head then coughed until she was a fetal position shaped lump.

He patted the lump gently. "Let's leave your mom be for a bit. You two get ready for school. Teeth. Fresh undies. Clean clothes. March airmen!"

Both boys looked at Jack and pouted but left the room.

"I'll get them off to school Carter. I called Hank. He knows you came down with something. I'll be back in a bit."

"Don't… *cough cough* have… *cough* time for…" And she never got any further because she couldn't catch her breath from coughing and when she did she groaned miserably.

"Stop trying to talk Carter. That's an order." He ran his fingers gently through her hair and brushed his lips on her temple. "I'll be back in a little bit."

With a lingering look he left her room to make sure the boys were getting ready. "Georgie, you better not be playing with Legos instead of getting dressed." He yelled down the hall. "Jake! Brush your teeth!"

His voice trailed away and Sam who felt otherwise utterly miserable put her fingers where his lips had been at her temple. He used to do that all the time when she was sad or had had a really rough day. She'd never thought about how much love he'd put in that simple gentle gesture.

She listened to him ordering the kids to get ready and smiled a little. He was a good dad. He was gentle with them when they needed it and firm when they needed that. Like when they were busy playing instead of getting ready for school.

Oh this is bad, Sam Carter. You cannot fall in love with this man all over again. He's only here to help out with the kids because he feels like the mess you made of your life is his fault. Sam sighed. Do not under any circumstances fall in love with Jack O'Neill again she firmly ordered her heart.

Jack walked back in with a steaming cup of tea and two ibuprofen. Sam's heart laughed at her orders and flipped her off. "I'll get you a glass of water. Don't try to dry swallow those either Carter." He ordered as he headed for the bathroom.

He came back a moment later with a glass from the bathroom and handed it to her.

After she swallowed them she took a careful sip of the still overly hot tea. "Go home, Jack. I'll be fine."

"Carter, I've seen you in pretty bad shape. On zero of those occasions did I go home. Now you can have this one of two ways; I bring you a bell to ring when you need me or I sit in the chair in the corner and work on reports in here so I can see myself you are hanging in there."

She blinked up at him and bit her lip.

"And if you fight me I'll take you to a doctor and make them stick needles in you." Threatening her with his worst horror.

Sam chuckled a little and coughed for her efforts. Jack sat on the bed and gently pounded on her back while she coughed.

"You aren't getting rid of me so you may as well just accept this." He told her, leaving his arm around her once the coughing fit subsided.

Sam sighed as she lay against his shoulder. One arm slowly crept up around his middle and she sniffled a little.

Jack for his part closed his eyes, turned his head and kissed the top of her head gently. "Or we could just sit here doing this." He told her softly and pulled his legs up on the bed and lay back against the pillows, his arms wrapped around her comfortingly, the arm across her back rubbing gentle circles.

* * *

Jack blinked awake, disoriented. Yellow walls. White ceiling. Ah. Sam was still draped across his chest snoring softly. For a brief moment he let himself hug her tightly. Wished this was his life. Waking up with this beautiful woman he loved in his arms, his boys bounding in on a Saturday morning begging to go get donuts.

But it was Tuesday, the woman in his arms wasn't his to love and likely would never love him that way again and the boys he loved were another man's responsibility. One he was shirking. Jack sighed. He wasn't one for revenge but he was very tempted to exact some on a certain two-faced thieving politician.

He had her friendship again. Her trust. That was more than he'd have hoped for even last year. Georgie's revelation that Pete thought he'd run Jack off amused the hell out of Jack. If he hadn't been too hurt to watch her love another man, Pete couldn't have run him off with a pack of rabid Jaffa. He'd like to see him try now.

Jack slowly eased himself out from under Sam who clutched at him in her sleep. He soothed her gently as he got up. Aside from nature calling he needed to see what was keeping Vala.

Sam shivered a little without his body heat so he pulled the blanket over her and tucked her in. "I'll be right back, sweetheart." He reassured the sleeping woman. One hand on her shoulder. That seemed to calm her and she settled again.

Jack made use of the head then padded quietly down the stairs having taken his shoes off at the door as per standing order in Sam's house since forever. He stopped in the kitchen. Hutch was worrying on a chew toy in the middle of the floor and looked up at him questioningly. Jack saw the bag on the counter with a note taped to it.

_Jack,_

_You both looked very comfortable so I decided not to wake you. Everything on the list is in the bag or in the fridge. Take good care of our girl. Hank scrubbed the mission until she's better. Don't tell her. She'll blame herself if you do. You knew that already though. Ta ta!_

\- _Vala M._

Jack chuckled. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and texted Vala a thank you with hearts around it. He received back a photo of he and Sam snuggled together on her bed and a note saying she was saving this one for their wedding album. 'Very funny,' he texted back. Jack's heart had squeezed painfully reading Vala's text. He'd be keeping that photo but the likelihood of him needing a wedding album was pretty low.

Three days later Sam was bored and told Jack so.

"You can watch TV in the family room if you cover up and drink your tea." Jack had slipped her the medicinal stuff and had been dosing her with elderberry syrup and ginger for her stomachache as she couldn't keep anything down from the coughing the first two days.

Sam huffed. "Fine but we're watching Nova."

Jack kissed her forehead as he walked by her on the bed. "Deal." He told her.

Sam frowned. He kept doing that and she didn't understand why. She'd run off on him, refused to hear his reasons, married someone else, had children. He was just being kind, she told herself. She was reading his actions wrong that was all. Jack is a good man; he'd take care of anyone he cared about and a lot of people he didn't.

"Do you think you can get down the stairs or do you need help?"

"Are you mocking me?" Sam asked him.

Jack pinched his fingers together. "This much." He told her with amusement in his dark eyes.

Sam's heart sped up and she swallowed. 'Knock it off you'. She told her wayward emotions. Sam grunted and narrowed her eyes which made him smile even more.

"Let's go get you comfy."


	15. Third week of December

**Third week of December:**

"Jack, you can't buy them all this stuff. Sam's feelings will be hurt. She can't afford much for the boys this year." Daniel told him.

Jack sighed. Daniel was right. "What if I got them practical stuff like jeans and socks and new tennis shoes?"

"Better. And _one_ toy Jack. I mean it. It was bad enough she didn't have any money to buy you a birthday gift after everything you've done for her this year."

"That shouldn't have bothered her. What the kids did was great. I don't need a bunch of stuff."

"I know that and you know that but Sam's had to deal with a selfish jerk for nine years who bought her things instead of giving her and the kids love. Now she can't even afford to do much more than keep the roof over their heads."

"I wonder if I should sell my place and pay off some of her loan." Jack mused out loud.

"First, that's a terrible idea and she'd never accept the money. Second, where did you plan on sleeping?"

"I could pay the mortgage company directly Danny, and your couch looks very comfortable."

"I'm sure my wife would have a few things to say about that."

"Yah and most of them not appropriate for polite company either."

Daniel laughed. "She does have some very creative ways of expressing herself."

"Ew."

"Hurry up and decide which thing they would like the best." Daniel suggested. "I'm starving."

"All right, all right. We should stop by Carter's place anyway. She won't admit it but she still feels a little crappy. I don't know how the boys and I avoided coming down with it too."

"Flu shots would be my guess."

"Yah, I guess hers might not work very well with naquadah soup for blood." Jack mused as he dug through the toys. He kept a fairly large Lego set for Georgie and was debating between art supplies and a Nerf gun for Jake.

"If you get the Nerf gun you have to get two of them." Daniel reminded him.

Jack's face lit up and he went back to the correct aisle and chose three more, drawing down with each to test it. Daniel shook his head. "What? These are for me and Carter." He said in an injured tone.

"Do you still have the ring you bought her?"

Jack gave him a flat unfriendly look.

"It was just a question." He said putting up his hands in surrender.

"Can it, Space Monkey. We can go right back to not being friends if you keep that up."

"Have you asked her how she feels about you?"

"No. And I'm not going to. And you're not going to either." Jack told him in a tone of finality.

"Ok. But she smiles again on base. She hasn't done that in a long time."

"That's nice." Jack said absently as he put rejected toys back.

"Sometimes she hums."

Jack stopped, turned and looked at Daniel with a very guarded expression. "Daniel."

"Jack."

"Drop it."

Daniel shrugged.

* * *

"Lucy! I'm home!" Jack shouted up the stairs to Sam who had taken to working on her reports in bed. Jack was grabbing anything she ordered him to and bringing it to the house for her to work on. Hank had drawn the line at her taking home exotic items but anything up to that point was fair game and Jack understood her work more than he let on most of the time.

He heard a soft cough coming from her bedroom and bounded up the stairs. He skidded to a stop at her bedroom door. She'd showered but was in a thick flannel nightgown that should have been a turn off but wasn't. "Did you get some work done?" He asked her companionably.

"Some. Could you make me some more tea please?" Her eyes were soft. He'd shown up looking rumpled and sweet and her defenses were clearly down.

He smiled. "Coming right up. Would madam like honey in her tea?" He asked in a cheesy butler voice.

Sam giggled which made her cough and then swear which made him grin more. "Madam would." She finally told him.

Jack performed an impressive opera bow and left the room.

Sam sighed. "Oh boy." She muttered of her racing heart that was currently doing happy little gymnastics.

Jack went to the kitchen to heat up water when Daniel came in with Sam's mail.

"Uh, Jack…" He asked in that drawn out tone that was a sure fire prequel to getting his ass shot off.

"What now?" Jack asked.

"I thought you said Sam's been getting caught up on the back mortgage payments?"

"She is. They let her take a hardship exemption as long as she makes a payment and a half every month which she's been able to do. I made sure she was getting the hours and hazard pay."

"Then what's this?" Daniel asked, holding up a large envelope that said 'notice of foreclosure' in large red letters on the front.

Not giving a shit about her privacy under the circumstances Jack took his pocketknife to the top of the envelope and pulled out the contents. It wasn't from her lender. Jack was currently familiar with all her bills having helped her make a budget. Not that she'd needed him, he was pretty sure she'd just wanted the moral support and a fresh set of eyes. He read over the paperwork and looked sick. That bastard.

"Jack?"

But Jack sat with a thump in the kitchen chair and raked his fingers into his silver hair.

"Jack?" Daniel tried again.

"He took out a second mortgage at some point, must have forged her signature. There's no way I can come up with this much money quickly enough." Jack said in the kind of hollowed out voice one had when emotionally gutted. Jack's eyes went blank as he sat holding the paperwork.

Sam chose that moment to come downstairs. "Did I hear Daniel with you?" She asked cheerfully from the hall but when she came around the corner her smile faltered. Jack sat looking shell shocked and Daniel had that helpless look he got on his face when he didn't know what to say.

"Daniel?" She said softly.

Daniel turned to her, looked back at Jack. Tugging the papers from Jack's hands, he slowly handed them to her. His eyes were full of pain.

Sam looked down at the contents of her hands. After a few moments, her free hand came up and covered her mouth and a choked cry of horror escaped her lips.

In an instant Jack was up and his arms were around her as she sagged against him. "What am I going to do?" She said so softly Daniel almost didn't hear her. "Jack. What am I going to do? We have nowhere to go. We'll have to sell everything and hope I can find an apartment or... Oh god what about Hutch? He's too big. No one will take him." Sam clutched Jack's shirt under his jacket in a vice like grip as she shook with silent tears of frustration.

Jack and Daniel made eye contact over Sam's head. Jack's mouth was a thin tight line as he gave Daniel a sharp nod.

Daniel pulled his phone out of his pocket and started dialing as he walked out of the room, giving Sam and Jack some privacy.

"What's Daniel doing?" She finally asked Jack once she got a hold of herself.

"Calling in the Calvary." He told her and stroked her hair gently until she looked up at him. "You ok now?" his dark eyes were warm with concern.

She nodded. "No, I mean, not really. I'm losing my house Jack, my home. The only home my boys have ever known and for what? Why is he doing this to us?" Her voice cracked a little at the end and Jack tightened his arms and buried his face in her hair.

"I don't know, sweetheart. I wish I had an answer for you."

Sam sighed and hugged him tightly. "If he thinks I'd go running to him if I had nowhere to go he'd better think again. I'd rather live in a box." She said vehemently.

It was on the tip of Jack's tongue to tell her no child of his was going to live in a box when he had a perfectly good house sitting there they could use. An idea started to form in Jack's head and he nodded slightly to himself. It might take some convincing on his part and he'd have to play things very safe himself but there was no reason for Sam to live in some crummy apartment paying sky high rent. For now though he'd reassure her on one point. "Hutch will be fine at my house. We'll just have to rework our schedules so the kids can spend their afternoon with him."

She looked up at him again with a small measure of relief. He was such a good man. She didn't deserve him after all she'd done, but she'd do her best to make it up to him somehow. "Thank you." She told him very softly.

He wiped a tear off her cheek. "I'm mostly helping me, Sam. I miss having a dog."

Sam laughed a little and he smiled at her. "The house is going to get pretty crowded in a few minutes. Did the kids leave any snacks?"

"I have no idea. I lost all control of that situation this week and I was too tired to care." She admitted.

"I'll call Teal'c." Jack said and kissed her forehead as he pulled his phone out of his pocket. "T, bring enough snacks for about, oh, say ten people or so." Jack told him. Sam looked at him oddly. "He eats enough for three people." He reminded Sam who nodded in understanding. "Doesn't matter. Comfort food." He told the other man and clicked off his phone.

"Jack, why are you and Daniel having everyone come here? What do you expect to do? I can't afford to pay all that and I'd never let you guys pay it for me. I'd never be able to earn enough to do so." She told him.

"No." He admitted. "But we might be able to work together to arrange a short sale and pay for a storage unit for you for a while so you don't lose all your things and don't come out of this with a lifetime of debt."

"Jack." She said to him, her voice soft, breathless. What she might have said though was lost in the clamor of two little boys greeting Daniel then Jack and Sam who were still in each other's arms.

"Have you been kissing?" Jake demanded and Sam blushed an intriguing shade of pink Jack hadn't been expecting of her. Perhaps, Jack thought, Daniel was on to something.

"Don't ask them that. It's rude!" Georgie said with an eyeroll which made Jack laugh. "Mom, are you ok? You look like you've been crying. You do too, Jack." He told them.

Sam gave him a reassuring smile. "Everything is all right. We just got some bad news that's all." She told him.

Georgie clearly thought that was bullshit but chose to accept her answer for now.

Vala came in and smiled at the boys. "Just the gentlemen I want to see. Leave your shoes on, boys, we're going for a drive." She told them and steered Georgie and Jake back out to the garage.

Sam looked at Jack who shrugged.

"I'll be back in a tick. I'm taking the boys to a friend's house so the adults can talk." She told them and disappeared out the door.

"A tick?" Jack asked.

"Something like a bit." She told him.

"Ah."


	16. The rest of that evening:

**The rest of that evening:**

Sam was surprised when Landry showed up with everyone else. Hank had a realtor buddy who set up a short sale on the house. Sam would never recover what was owed but at least it would be a significant dent in the balance. She was on the hook for the second mortgage, her attorney had told her over the phone, until they could nail the slimy bastard on forgery and falsifying records. He'd used her income prior to making her cut back her hours to qualify for the loan.

Vala came back without the kids and Jack had been a little beside himself when Vala had admitted the 'friend' who took the kids to the mall for a few hours so SG-1 could come up with a game plan for Sam had been none other than one Jon O'Neill. He'd given Vala a hard look and she'd returned it, a challenge in her eyes, daring him to give her one good reason why his own clone shouldn't be taking care of the boys he took care of every day.

About an hour later Vala got a phone call she excused herself for. "Are the boys all right" She asked him, concerned.

"No, they're fine. Danny was right. G-Man is definitely mine, er, well, his."

"Well, that's a relief. You have no idea how hard it was to slip that thing out of her office. Make sure you get it back so I can smuggle it back in, darling."

"Of course." There was a long pause. "Ah, Vala…" He huffed out a sigh so like his older self Vala chuckled. "Did, um, did they?" He paused again. "You know… after?"

"No darling, they hadn't seen each other in ages, not until he popped back up at the end of this August. Why do you ask?"

"Well, you know how kids are, J-Dog wanted to give it a shot too. Vala… he is too."

"Wait… both of them?" She asked nearly but not entirely shocked.

"Unless the shrub is but I find that pretty unlikely. Somehow she… oh. Oh hell Vala. Jesus, what was she thinking?"

"Jon, I have absolutely no idea what you are going on about."

"Shit. I don't know if I should be relieved or angry. She must have… dammit. Look, they are almost done in the can, I gotta go."

"All right. I'll text you when the party winds down and let me know how much I owe you."

"It's Sam, Vala, you don't owe me a thing."

Vala grinned. She'd told Jack exactly the same thing.

She walked back in on Teal'c and Cam discussing coordinating base personnel to help them box up Sam and the kid's things.

Jack was standing by the fireplace turned to them. "Have them box up my stuff too." He interrupted their discussion.

Sam, the edges of panic in her eyes, looked at him.

He saw it, saw that she thought he was abandoning her to her fate and he needed to nip that in the bud before it took hold. Never again. Especially not now. "Have the guys take her stuff to my place. It's just been sitting empty anyway. I'll sleep on base." He told Teal'c.

"A most agreeable solution." Teal'c agreed.

"Wait… Jack, I can't take your house." Sam insisted. "I'll get us an apartment or... or something."

"The house is paid off and the property taxes and insurance have been on automatic withdrawal for years now. This way the kids have a home instead of an apartment, they can be with their dog; they still have a yard to play in. It's in their school district so they don't have to make new friends. You don't have to worry about rent or working on a down payment for a new place.

"It's the most logical solution Carter." He told her.

"Look it makes… some sense but I can sleep in the basement. It's not fair to put you out of your own home." She insisted.

Everyone was looking at them covertly. Only three people at the house besides Jack and Sam knew why things had ended between them. At least one of those people knew Jack never stopped being in love with Sam. There was a high probability two of them did. Jack's eyes swept the room. "Outside, Carter. That's an order." He said softly and stalked to the front door. Eyes huge, Sam followed him, not understanding his sudden shift in behavior.

After she closed the front door behind her Jack turned. "I am doing every possible thing I can here, but Sam, I can't… if there's any hint…" He scrubbed his hand through his hair.

She waited for him to compose himself. Something, she reflected, she probably should have done nine years ago.

"I can't kill that shrub you married and I can't afford to buy your house back for you…" He could but it would leave him pretty deep in the hole and unable to ever follow through on his other plans. "All I can do is make it so the shit he's pulling doesn't force you into a position that you feel you have to take him back to survive." He gave her a hard look. "My problem didn't go away though. I still have a target on my back and if there's even a _whiff _that I'm… I can't undo what that creep did to you if they torpedo your career Carter. Did any of that make sense?"

Sam looked down at her feet for a moment then looked up at him, her eyes shining with unshed tears. She nodded slowly. "Thank you." She told him softly. "It's not fair to you and you shouldn't have to do things this way, but… thank you."

"We'll… we'll figure things out Carter. I promise. It won't always be this way." His heart twisted in his gut with that near admission that he still wanted to be with her in whatever way she'd have him. "But until I neutralize that threat, everything needs to be as above board as a guy in my line of work can manage."

Sam put a hand on his arm. "I understand." She told him and he'd have thought for just a moment that he saw a flash of what he felt for her returned in her eyes but he told himself it was a trick of the light and put his hand over hers.

"I'm sorry about the house Carter." He told her sincerely.

"I'm not." She grinned. "It's an ugly house. I like yours better."

Jack chuckled. "It's yours as long as you and the boys need it. You have to share when I retire though because I don't think they will let me live on base at that point."

Did he just suggest? No. That's your imagination Sam. He's just making a joke. "Deal."

"All right. Let's go back inside. It's too damned cold out here."

* * *

It wasn't much longer after that when Vala called Jon to bring the boys back home. The kids ran inside and literally attacked Jack to tell them about their fun afternoon with Jon. Jack was beside himself again. Beside himself because he'd literally been beside himself. Jon found it far more amusing than Jack had. Sam thought it was hilarious and had affectionately kissed the younger man's cheek as a thank you in front of Jack just to get a rise out of him.

Shortly after, Jon made his goodbyes and Sam walked him out. Jack was getting the kids ready for bed. "Thank you, Jon. I appreciated the help. They don't need to be mixed up in all this adult drama."

"Sam, it's you. You know I'd do anything for you."

She nodded. Without the vested interest of her returning his regard due to his age, Jon had the option of being far more truthful than Jack did.

"Have you told him about Georgie?"

Sam gave him a panicked look.

"I'll take that as a no. You know I won't say anything to him Sam, but someone else might. Someone like Danny. You need to tell him before he finds out on his own." He told her gently.

"I know. There's just not a good time in all this to tell him." She admitted.

"I suppose not." He agreed. "Do it soon, Sam. You better tell him about Jake too while you're at it."

Sam looked up at him in horror.

"If you had asked I'd have taken care of it for you the legal way. I'm technically still him." He shrugged. "You have to tell him Sam. I think I get your reasons but he has a right to know."

Sam sighed heavily.

Jon tilted his head and lifted her chin. "He won't stop loving you because of this, Sam. I promise."

Sam's eyes went very wide. "No, Jon it's not like that, he's… he's just helping out after what happened; he feels guilty, responsible." She told him, her voice quavering.

"Sam. I know me." His mouth quirked in a smile. "If you need someone to watch the boys just call." He laughed a little. "I always knew we'd make great kids." And he kissed her cheek fondly and left.

Sam bit her lip in worry then went back inside. There just wasn't a right time to tell him this kind of thing. She'd fudged her rights with his DPA and HCP paperwork that he'd never removed her from to get things set up then outright forged his name on the documents the clinic sent her. She'd had no other choice. Pete was infertile and had he gone to get checked he'd have found out for sure Georgie wasn't his child. Sam hadn't even been sure until she'd tried to actively get pregnant again. The only reason Sam knew herself was because she'd tested a sample of his semen herself to find out what was going wrong when all her own tests came back fine.

She'd had all the paperwork routed to the mountain so Pete never knew she'd been artificially inseminated. She'd told herself it was because their hair and eye color was enough of a match that Pete would never notice anyway just like he hadn't noticed Georgie wasn't his but she was lying to herself. She'd done it because she had access to something Jack had done at the recommendation of the Asgard after the first repository incident. He'd laughed telling them that he had a popsicle of swimmers on stand-by if anyone needed it.

But deep, deep down her real reason had been horribly self-serving. She knew if Pete ever went from controlling and manipulative to violent that Jack would do anything to protect children and he'd murder to protect his own children. She had that weapon in her arsenal. That neither boy was Pete's and he had no right to them because she did, in fact, know exactly who the father was in both cases.

And oh how she'd loved knowing for certain this baby was his. She'd sat in her rocking chair, Georgie too young to understand or repeat what she said. She'd told them both about their father and how much she loved him, what a good man he was, how much she wanted them both to meet him some day. Silly pipe dreams of a desperately sad woman at the time that Jack would somehow come back and still love her, that it had all just been some horrible mistake.

But he'd protected her only to have her commit a felony to cover her own ass. Jon was wrong. Jack might still care about her, but finding out the terrible self serving lie she'd been living would crush any blossoming feelings he might be entertaining for her. She'd tell him about Georgie of course because Jack had a right to know the truth in that matter but for now, at least, the identity of Jake's father needed to remain a secret.


	17. Fourth week of December:

If Jack was a betting man, and let's face it, he'd gambled on his life in Carter's hands more times than was strictly sane. She was spooling up to admit he was Georgie's father. She'd look at him speculatively, cut her eyes to the boy then pretend nothing had happened. He could put her out of her misery but where was the fun in that?

They had worked together to decide which things should just stay at his house, what things she should say the heck with and sell and which things she'd be moving over. They had started at her house and concluded other than her baking pans to just sell her kitchen things. Pete had chosen the dishes. What kind of guy feels he needs to control what kind of dishes his wife picks? Jack had wondered. Sam felt no attachment to them. In fact, she honestly had not liked the style but had been too polite to tell him so. If Jack 'accidently' broke a few the next few days while getting meals ready that was purely speculation. Sam's bedroom set was brand new so she was bringing it with her. The boys agreed to go through their toys and games and purge ones they no longer played with and either donate or sell them depending on condition.

Jack secretly made arrangements to have her mom's piano tuned after it was moved so she could play it again. He was leaving his guitar at the house in the basement with his office set up in case he really did have to work while watching the boys. He had kind of this silly fantasy of them sitting in his den singing to the boys together. _Edelweiss_ seemed appropriate. Jack caught himself humming it and stopped. Shook his head. He ran his fingers over the side of the oak piano. If he kept acting like this she was going to catch on to how very much in love he still was with her and then he could just forget about her wanting to be his friend he supposed.

A couple hours later they were at his house doing the same thing. Most of his things would be going into storage but there were some things he'd be leaving out like moving the office to the basement and his class A's and suits to a garment stand down there as well in case he needed something specific. He tried to talk her into getting the place painted but she'd refused, insisting it would only be for a couple years until she was back on her feet. He figured that gave him about two years to figure out how to get her to fall in love with him again, retire, push through adopting the boys… A plan began to formulate in the back of Jack's head.

Sam and Jack walked in on Hutch and the boys exploring Jack's sunny, sunken living room. "Who's this, mom?" Georgie asked her, picking up a photo of Charlie off the bookshelf where Jack had a number of photos he'd collected over the years.

Sam smiled a little sadly, not realizing Jack was as close as he was that he could read her expression. "That's yu… um, that's Charlie, Uncle Jack's little boy." She told Georgie who was looking at the photo in curiosity.

"You have a little boy too, Jack? Can I meet him?" Georgie asked innocently, unaware of the knife he'd put through his father's heart.

"I'm sorry, Georgie. He passed away a long time ago." Jack said, his voice soft and a little thick. He hadn't missed Sam's almost confession. It must be bothering her that it almost slipped out like that. He may have to just spill the beans and let her off the hook.

Georgie seemed to realize he'd made a tactical error in asking about the boy that looked like his brother Jake. He latched onto something safer and picked up an old team photo of SG-1 in their first year. It was a candid shot of the four of them and Jack's hair hadn't started going notably grey yet. "Ha-ha, your hair looks funny in this picture Jack. It's sticking out in all directions just like mine does." And then Georgie had a secret wish he'd shared only once solidify rock hard into a solid and unbreakable belief. That the man in front of him was his real father. Not just because he acted like a real dad, something the man who raised him, Pete, he would never again call Pete 'dad', again didn't do, but because he saw himself in the way this man stood, how he needed time to sort out his thoughts or they came out garbled, and yes, his matching caramel brown messy hair that never quite tamed down no matter what and he didn't help matters by sticking his hands in his hair all the time. Either of them.

On the heels of that revelation came the realization that his parents still loved each other. That with possibly a little nudge like when he'd taught Hutch, the dog Pete had told him was too stupid to learn anything, how to shake and only bark if he didn't know the person that possibly, just possibly he could nudge his parents back together. Georgie wondered if Jack was food motivated like Hutch.

"Who's this lady with Aunt Cassie?" Jake asked holding up the photo of Janet.

Jack and Sam who were currently equally tense for the exact same reason though each thought the other was tense due to something else entirely both smiled sadly. "That's Cassie's mom, Jake." Jack told her. "She was a good friend of your mom's."

"Did she die?" Jake asked in such a blunt way that neither adult could help but laugh just a little.

"Yes Jake, Janet died saving my friend Simon." Jack told the kid as he walked forward and gently took the photo out of his hands.

Sam watched him sadly from the kitchen doorway. He must feel like he loses everyone he loves some days. She thought. Georgie caught her eye and an agreement passed between them. Time to change the subject. "Jack, do you have any snacks? I'm _star_ving." Georgie told him as he grabbed his leg and hung off it dramatically.

Jack chuckled and stumped up the short flight with a tousle haired third leg in search of snacks.

"Mama!" Jake said as he'd lost Jack's attention. "Uncle Jack has a picture of grandpa! Look!" He picked it up and shoved it at her.

"Well so he does. I'm not surprised, your grandpa and Jack were very good friends for a long time." She said with a sad smile. They were in their blues and clearly sharing a laugh over some inside joke. Probably 'deep space radar telemetry'.

"Mama?"

"Yes baby?"

"Is Jack going to live with us?"

"No sweetie, he was only making a joke."

"Oh." Jake seemed to think about it. "I was kind of hoping he wanted to be my dad since I don't have one now." Jake admitted sadly.

Sam sighed and bit her lip. She could tell him part of the truth. The part that wouldn't land her in a brig. "Jack isn't going anywhere sweetie. He promised you he'd be here for you and he means that with his whole heart. Jack O'Neill doesn't make promises he doesn't intend to keep." She told the little boy, not realizing her voice carried up to the kitchen where Jack winked at Georgie conspiratorially.

Jack leaned forward. "That's why your mom is my favorite person." He whispered and earned an ear to ear grin from the boy. Good. Let that get back to her. Jack winked again.


	18. January Eve:

"Why are we wearing hats?" Georgie asked.

"Because it's festive!" Cassie told him and pulled his up just enough that the string made a pop when she let go and the conical hat plopped back on his head.

"Pete never did this stuff." The boy said in a long suffering voice. "He and mom always went to a party and we had a babysitter."

"Why are you calling your dad by his first name?" Cassie asked in curiosity as she idly fished through the bin of Legos on the floor of his bedroom.

"He's _not_ my dad." Georgie's posture stiffened and his hands clenched into fists.

"I know you're mad at him, buddy, but- "

"Cassie, he's _NOT_ my dad." Georgie glared at her and huffed angrily.

"Why do you think that?" She asked him gently.

"Because Jack is my dad. We have the same hair and we think the same way and… and we have the same hair." He said throwing up his arms in exasperation. Unable to further articulate the gut feeling he had that Jack was his real father. His_ real,_ real father.

"I used to pretend Uncle Jack was my dad too sometimes. I was so sad after my parents died and Jack loves me so much. It was nice to pretend. It made me feel better."

"I. Am not. _PRETENDING_." Georgie ground out, furious.

Jack's head popped in. "What's going on?" He asked mildly but his heart sank. He'd heard every bit of it. Sam was going to have to come clean finally.

"Jack tell her!" Georgie demanded. He'd hit the point of shaking with fury and Jack was getting a little concerned. He'd forgotten how he used to get as a kid when he was overloading emotionally and was now witnessing how it must have looked to those around him.

"C'mere." He said softly to the boy and hugged him tightly while Georgie sobbed and clutched his shirt, his hat having slid around to the side of his head like an awkward horn. "It's ok, buddy, just calm down all right." He rubbed the boy's back soothingly like his mom used to him when he got this way over something.

Sam who had heard the outburst but not the contents had come upstairs to investigate the commotion. She walked in on Jack cradling Georgie gently against himself while the boy sobbed and Cassie looking as confused as possible. "What happened? Is Georgie hurt?" She asked Cassie.

Cassie shook her head. "I'm not sure what happened. We were talking and he said something about Pete and I told him I know he's mad at his dad but he shouldn't call him by his first name because it's a little disrespectful and he just kind of… exploded." She didn't really want to tell Sam why or how Georgie had exploded.

Sam, looking a little perplexed crouched next to Jack. "Georgie? What's wrong, sweetie?" she asked him gently.

Georgie turned his huge blue eyes to his mother "Mom." He took a long slow, shuddering breath to center himself and try to regain some of his equilibrium. Jack was truly impressed. He didn't know if Sam had taught him that or if he had some great teachers but he wished he'd had that ability at Georgie's age. "Mom." He said more firmly. "Pete is not my dad."

Sam sucked in a breath and muttered "Oh boy." under her breath knowing full well Jack and Cassie both heard her. She sank down on Georgie's bed. Thank goodness Jake was watching cartoons obliviously in the den. She sighed and looked down at her hands thoughtfully for a while. "Sit down. All of you. Please."

Georgie opted to stand leaning into his mom. Jack sat next to Cassie who looked at him with concern. Jack squeezed her hand where Sam couldn't see it and suddenly Cassie understood. Jack already knew. He'd left it up to Sam to tell him when she was ready.

Sam kissed the top of Georgie's head and looked at Jack, an apology in her eyes. "I really didn't know at first. Everything happened so fast and I was so upset at the time that I just accepted the situation for what it was. I… I wondered of course but he was born when he was supposed to be so it must have happened the last night we were together."

Her arm tightened around Georgie. "By the time I figured it out, I'd been married for three years and had another baby on the way. I didn't know what else to do. I know you deserved to know but I also knew you didn't want to be with me, or thought you didn't because of how we parted. It's no excuse but by then Pete pretty much had me convinced there was no way I'd be able to handle being a single mom and you stayed on at HWS so I assumed you were satisfied with your life without me… without us in it." She sniffled a little.

"So, yes, Jack is your real dad Georgie. But you can't tell anyone outside of this room ever, ok?" she told the boy.

"Why not?" he asked, confused.

Sam sighed and looked helplessly at Jack whose expression was closed off. She internalized it that he did so because he was angry at her. She had no way of knowing that he was trying desperately to hide the pride he felt for her right now for facing one of her biggest poor choices and not apologizing for doing what she thought was right at the time.

"Georgie, there are very bad people in this world that if they knew for certain that you are my son, they would use that information to hurt your mom." Jack told him in a man to man sort of way.

He smiled with pride when Georgie lifted his chin with O'Neill level defiance. "They better not." Was all the boy said and Jack's heart swelled.

"You can't even tell your little brother, Georgie." Jack admonished him.

"Why not?"

"Because he's little and he'll forget it's a secret." Jack explained.

Georgie looked thoughtful for a moment. "Yah, he has trouble keeping his big yap shut." The boy said and a chortle escaped Sam's mouth before she clamped a hand over it.

"Why don't you go downstairs and watch TV with Jake for a while?" Jack suggested.

"Ok." He said cheerfully. He turned as he reached the end of the bed. "Dad."

Jack gave him a broad grin but put his finger to his lips. "For now, son, just call me Jack, ok? I'll let you know when it's ok to call me dad."

Georgie ran back and hugged Jack fiercely before leaving.

"I'll just.. ah.. go keep an eye on the kids." Cassie said and high tailed herself out of the room. It had been pure luck she was home for the holidays. Luck and probably nosiness when it had gotten back to her that her aunt and uncle seemed to be on their way to mending fences. She had wanted to see for herself.

"Carter…"

"Sir." She said sadly.

"Jesus, Sam. Stop that. I'm not mad at you for what you did."

She looked up at him, unshed tears in her eyes. "I'm mad at me for what I did. I… I kept your son from you for eight years. That's… that's almost as long as Charlie was alive. And I think Pete knew Georgie wasn't his all along. He never loved that boy, not even when he was an angelic little baby."

Jack dragged her into his arms with a mumbled 'c'mere'. "Don't Sam. Please don't torture yourself with this. Yes I would have liked to have been part of my son's life. I love him. But I'd love him even if he wasn't my son Sam. Because he's part of _you_."

"That's the worst cliché you've ever made." She mumbled against his shirt.

"I know, I know, I sound like one of those rom-com's Cassie likes so much. I'm serious though Sam. I'd have loved him either way. I mean, I should have figured it out with that hair. Oy." He said trying to get her to laugh.

She proffered a watery smile he accepted before kissing her gently on the temple. He wanted so badly to tell her how much he loved her but they had such a fragile balance, especially right now. "Let's go settle our nerves before I do or say something stupid Carter." Jack stood and helped her up off the low bed.

"Speak for yourself. I never say stupid things I don't intend to."

"Liar." He said with a laugh and slung his arm over her shoulders in a friendly manner. "We ok?"

"Shouldn't I be asking you that?" she asked.

"Well, I'm not the one that just had to admit her first kid is her boss's love child so I figured this one was yours."

"Are you being funny?"

"Is it working?" he asked hopefully.

"A little, yah." She said with a jerky kind of nod.

"Success!" He said and walked with her to the stairs. "Ladies first."

"Chivalry? At a time like this?"

"Well, I can't watch your six from in front of you Carter." He said perfectly reasonably as she gave him the side eye. He returned her look with an innocent one.

* * *

Later that evening, after banging pots and pans outside and screaming happy New Year with the neighbors, Cassie was passed out on the sofa bed in the den which now doubled as a guest room. She'd drank a bit too much, wallowing in a recent break up still. Jack and Sam were comfortably numb and the kids were leaning on them sleepily.

"We should get them to bed and I should get going." Jack told her. Mostly because she snuggled on his shoulder and he was having weird fantasies about fathering another child with her. Need to nip that nonsense in the bud you dirty old man. You got a kid out of this deal. Count your blessings.

"You had as much to drink as I did and I'm in no shape to drive." She told him sleepily. One hand creeping up his chest to settle on his neck. She patted his cheek affectionately before settling again.

This is what his life should have been, he thought sadly. The kids cuddled against them, her all but in his lap. He was glad he'd handled tonight the way he had. Talking to Daniel about it first had helped. Helped him put her actions into perspective before he jumped to conclusions about her behavior. Ran his mouth and hurt her again instead of doing what he came here to do which was take care of her. Not in an overt way she'd resent but the way he used to before it all went to shit. To stand at her back and cover her blind spots. Just like she always had his.

"Up. Up. Uncle Jack has to pee." He told them and groaned as he got up. "Who ordered this being old shit?" He groused as he walked to the hall bathroom.

Sam smirked then stretched and yawned. "Ok boys, time for bed." She told them to a choir of groans. She led them upstairs and got a pillow and blanket out of the hall closet for Jack so he could crash on the couch.

"What's that for, mom?"

"Uncle Jack had too much to drink like Cassie did so he's going to sleep on the couch tonight." She told Georgie.

"Can we sleep in your bed tonight?" He asked.

She looked down and realized what a rough day he'd had. "Sure kiddo."

"Can Jack sleep in bed with us?" His question was utterly innocent but Sam blushed anyway.

"Yah! There's lots of room, mama! Please?!" Jake begged.

"We'll sleep in the middle." Georgie offered with calculated wisdom.

Sam sighed.

"Kids, Sam, I'm gonna go." Jack yelled up the stairs.

"Dammit." She stumbled down the stairs and into his arms.

"Woah. Hello." He said warmly and pulled her in to nuzzle her hair. A smile on his face. "Fancy meeting you here Carter." His voice had become an affectionate purr that still did funny things to her insides.

"Ok now I know you've had too much to drink." His hands were inching up and brushing the underside of her breasts and she wasn't wearing a bra under her loose sweatshirt. "Come on up to bed, Jack." She told him softly.

He gave her a smoldering look. He was just drunk enough not to realize it was a trick. "M'k," he said with a sloppy smile and kicked his shoes back off and pulling off his coat to walk up the stairs dragging his sweatshirt off as he went up the stairs. Sam watched his movements and swallowed. It was a good thing the kids would be in bed with them. Sam didn't think she had the will power to hold back if he made a pass at her.

She arrived at her bedroom door to discover the boys giggling and snuggling against a shirtless Jack wearing just his boxers. He'd fortunately only gotten that far by the time the boys rushed the room. Sam grinned at them.

"Hop in Carter, I hear there's a party in your bed."

She grinned at him and slid under the blankets. "Good night boys, go to sleep." She told them.

"This isn't what I thought you had in mind, Carter." He muttered but there was a laugh in his voice.

"Surprise." She said and reached out and affectionately stroked his hair across the pillows.

"Hm, ok, that's not so bad." He said sleepily. "Love you guys." He mumbled as he drifted off to sleep.

* * *

Some time around five am Georgie woke and sat up. He looked at his parents and smiled. His mom's hand was still nestled against his dad's hair. His dad's leg had inched over and was pressed up against his mom's knee. He felt safe, loved. The way his friends felt with their parents.

"Jake." He whispered and shook his brother awake.

"Go 'way Georgie." His brother muttered.

"Don't you need to pee?" It was a dirty trick but it always worked.

"Why you do that, Georgie? I didn't have to pee before that." Jake sat up and crawled over Jack's leg, complaining the whole way. Georgie followed him and carefully closed the door behind him, grinning a little.

An hour later Jack blinked awake. He was nose-to-nose with Sam and it took a supreme effort not to kiss her awake. He opted instead to stroke the soft skin of her lower back where her sweatshirt had inched up.

She let out a soft hum and arched against him. Whoa. Ok he could work with this. A hand slid up his stomach to twine into his chest hair in a familiar way and blue eyes met his. "Good morning." He said softly.

Sam blinked, looked at his lips then back up at his eyes. "Jack? Um… where are the kids?"

"If I was going to guess, watching cartoons." He said. "I think we've been hoodwinked."

"Horns-waggled." She agreed.

"We should probably talk to him about that."

"Won't do any good. Once he gets an idea in his head that's pretty much how things are."

"I don't know anyone like that." Jack said innocently.

"Yes neither you nor my father have ever in your lives acted that way." She said dryly.

"You gotta admit Carter, this is a pretty nice way to wake up." He tucked a wisp of hair behind her ear. "I've missed it." He admitted.

She looked at him, saw the naked emotion in his eyes. She closed her eyes. She couldn't let him hope. Not for that. She didn't know he'd seen the love reflected in her eyes before she'd panicked.

Ok, I can work with this. It's not that she doesn't. She's afraid. My fault. I'll just… act casual.

Sam patted his shoulder affectionately without answering and got up and went to use the bathroom.

Well, it wasn't a 'no', he decided.


	19. Mid month - January:

"Guys! You're going to be late!" He yelled up the stairs at the boys as he cleaned up the breakfast dishes. His cell phone rang. He looked over and saw who it was. "Shit." He hit answer. "O'Neill." He barked.

"Jack? Jack, you need to get to base, Sam's been hurt."

"What happened Danny?"

"She's ok, Jack, but someone needs to be here and we have to go back to get Vala."

"Dammit. Where's Vala?"

"They took her, Jack. Sam got hurt trying to get her out. We got to Sam but…"

"Ok ok, I've got to get the kids to school but I'll be there soon."

"Thanks Jack. If we aren't here when you make it to base it's because we're, well, you know."

"Just, get Vala, Danny. Good luck."

"Thanks Jack." The phone went dead.

"Kids! Change of plans. Get down here now. I'm driving you to school." Jack shoved his wallet and phone in his pocket and was shoving on his shoes when the boys skidded down the stairs, the dog hot on their heels. "Go get in the car. I'll drop you off. Go to the office at the end of the day. If I don't pick you up, an airman will." He told the boys.

"Jack, what happened?"

"Don't know yet. I'll get you an update if I can. Your mom is ok, she got hurt but she's ok." He herded them into the SUV and took them to school.

He dropped by the office after he let them out at the door. "Jake, you usually come on the bus. I can't stay for outdoor lineup so I'll let the office know I drove you. Be good and get to class, buddy." He told the five year old.

"Ok Uncle Jack." He told him and gave him a sloppy kiss before going into school.

Georgie looked up at Jack. "Were you telling me the truth?"

Jack crouched down and put a hand on his cheek. "I won't say I'm not worried. I don't know how hurt she is. You guys will probably spend the night at the NORAD care facility if Aunt Carol doesn't release her from the infirmary so I can stay over night with your mom but I promise I will tell you if she's not going to be ok."

"Jack." The boy's eyes were worried. "I don't want to go back to Pete."

Jack glanced around quickly and seeing no one was in ear shot leaned in. "I will _never_ let that happen son." He said fiercely.

Georgie hugged him tightly then left for class.

Jack strolled into the office and smiled at the receptionist. "Hi, I just wanted to let you guys know the Shanahan boys have been told to come here instead of going to their bus at the end of the day. I'm not sure if it's going to be me or an airman that picks them up.; Their mom was hurt at work this morning and I just got the call."

Something about his tone or expression must have given the impression he was, because the older blond woman behind the desk smiled at him kindly. "You their step-dad?"

"Um, no, not… no." He sighed. "I'm an old friend of their mom's."

"Huh, figured when she took her husband off and added you, she got remarried. Either way, she's sure happier without that cop."

Jack grinned a little. "We can all get behind that sentiment. I'll keep you in the loop if they stay on base after tonight. I'm not sure how badly she's hurt and one of her team members might be too so I might be there a while. I'll try to send one of the guys the kids know on sight if I can't get away."

"No problem, General." She told him with a smile.

Jack chuckled. "Jack is fine, Mrs. West." He said reading her tag.

"Say, didn't your niece Cassie go here?" She asked him.

Jack beamed. "Yes she did."

"How is she? Such a lovely girl. How's her mom?"

"We lost her mom in the line of duty. Sam and I have been her guardians since but she's grown up now."

"Oh poor thing. Tell her I said hi and that I was sorry to hear about her mom. Janet was delightful."

Jack nodded. "I will." He said and hurried out.

Jack got to base and didn't bother to change before heading for the infirmary. One of the nurses waved him to the room they had put Sam in after they patched her up. Jack strolled in casually. "Carter, I'm not going to let you play with your friends if you don't play nice." He told her affably when she blinked at him.

"Yer outta uniform, sur." She slurred but smiled a little.

"Ah, they gave you the good stuff I see." He said with a tight grin.

"We had to sedate her actually. She thought she was going back through the Gate in her condition to rescue Vala" Carolyn told him as she walked in.

Jack nodded. Unsurprised. "How bad?"

"Lacerations, a concussion, two broken fingers and a dislocated shoulder."

"Good job Carter. Your medical record is going to look like mine soon." He said but squeezed her wrist gently.

"Wherza kids?" she asked absently.

"School. Which reminds me…" He dug through his contact list and dialed the number he wanted. "Yah unconfirmed but the Shanahan boys might be joining after school." He nodded absently at whatever the other person said. "Yes, charge it to my hours not Carter's." He agreed. "Thanks."

"Sir… stop it." Sam told him, waving her hand.

"Carter, they wouldn't have to go to NDC if I wasn't here to make sure you stay put. Now if Dr. Lam lets you out then it's a non-issue but I doubt you're going to leave until SG-1 comes back anyway so we'll all just wait together, hm?"

"If she gives you trouble sir I can knock her the rest of the way out." Carolyn told him.

"She's pretty close already. Can you ask one of the airmen to bring my laptop from my office? She'll sleep if someone stays with her."

Carolyn smiled. 'She'll sleep if you're with her,' she thought fondly of the general.

"Qui.. talking bout me.. mm rihh heer…" Sam mumbled.

Carolyn and Jack exchanged an amused look. "Get some rest Sam." Carolyn told her and gave Jack a short nod.

* * *

Five hours later, SG-1 stumbled back into the Gate room, Vala was limping but under her own power. Cam seemed to be nursing an arm injury. Jack watched them in mild interest, noted Daniel hovering and chuckled as he was guilty of doing the same thing. Love makes you pretty stupid, he decided. Teal'c who was typically uninjured made his way over to Jack and Sam who was out cold either asleep or riding the gentle swells of drug induced sedation.

"Colonel Carter refused to remain behind in spite of her injuries." He told Jack.

"Yah, Carolyn told me. I should go let the kids know she's all right."

"I will remain here." Teal'c agreed. The team rule since Jolinar, was Sam didn't wake up alone and had been after the panicked reaction Sam had to waking up that way.

Jack nodded his thanks and left to go talk to the boys and let them know that their mom really was ok.

They were watching TV with one of the staff members when Jack walked in. Both pairs of eyes lit up at the sight of him. "Hey guys. Before you ask Georgie, your mom is fine, she got a little banged up and she's asleep right now. If she's up and around before bedtime I'll take you home, if not just go ahead and go to bed here and I'll make sure you get to school in the morning, all right?"

"I don't want to sleep here, Uncle Jack." Jake complained.

"I know buddy but there's no one at home right now and…" Jack didn't know how to explain he couldn't leave Sam here without explaining the complexities of adult relationships to a five year old.

"It's like when mom was sick and you stayed at the house and slept on the couch." He asked.

"That's right." Jack told him.

"Ok." Jake said with a shrug.

Georgie rolled his eyes. "I don't know why he asked. He already knew that."

Jack grinned. "Be good guys. Uncle T is with your mom but I should get back."

"Ok. Don't forget to eat Jack." Georgie told him.

Jack chuckled and ruffled his hair. "Now you sound like your granddad." He told him and left, waving at the boys who watched him go.


	20. Late January:

"So is there anything else I need to do then?" Sam asked her attorney. "Ok, well, hopefully he doesn't get any bright ideas." She chuckled at the response. "Yah it would just figure. Thanks."

Jack looked up from his work. A question in his dark eyes. He slept on base but generally he was at the house as soon as he was dressed until after dinner now. He didn't want to set the precedent that he was available on base for problems even if it did look a little hinky, him showing up at the house daily even when Sam was off for the day.

"That was Lorin. I have a court date for next month about Pete's parental rights. If he can make it to the six months mark without bothering himself about his kids, I have an open and shut case to have them severed." She told him.

"Ah. What happens to his back child support?"

"He's still on the hook for it though given everything else he's done I don't expect to see it unless they garnish his wages and that might lead to him being an active parent out of spite. I don't think Georgie could handle that. He's too honest."

"He gets that from you." Jack told her.

Sam shook her head. "I used to be."

Jack got up and walked over to her. He stepped closer and tilted her chin up. "You've had to make some tough choices. That doesn't make you a dishonest person Carter." He told her; his voice thick with emotion.

But her eyes slid away from him. He wouldn't think that if he knew the rest.

"I'd like to be there for the hearing." He told her.

She nodded thoughtfully. He had a vested interest after all. "All right."

"Danny and Vala should be here any time. We figured we'd take the kids for the afternoon and you and Vala can just relax for a change."

She tilted her head at him. "What are you up to, Jack?"

"It's been a rough month for the both of you. We thought you might like some time without us underfoot. Sit around drinking wine or go shopping or something." He said grinning.

Sam crossed her arms over her chest. "Are you devolving or something?"

"No. I just know Vala really likes shopping and she'll drag you along." He said with a grin.

Sam had to concede that Jack had a point. "All right but take them to the mall. It's too cold for the park and Georgie just got over a cold."

Jack nodded. He could work with those parameters. "He's a good kid Carter. Thank you for raising our son so well in spite of your situation."

Sam's heart fluttered a little when he said 'our son'. "Jack… I…"

Jack had leaned in and his hand that had gently held her chin had moved to cup her cheek, his eyes dipped to her mouth then back up to her eyes, asking permission before he followed through on his obvious intent.

She swallowed and her lips parted, her eyes a little startled when she realized where he was going with this conversation.

Jack lowered his head and gave her lips the barest of brush when the front door opened with a swirl of cold Colorado January air.

"Anyone home?" Daniel called from the front hall and was greeted by the boys yelling 'Uncle Daniel!' at him.

Jack chuckled a little and rested his forehead on hers. Five months ago she'd flinched when he'd looked like he might touch her. She still had at least some feelings for him. He hoped it was enough to rebuild on.

"Jack? Sam darling, where are you two lovebirds hiding?" Vala called cheerfully as she headed towards where they were in the kitchen.

Jack stepped back from Sam and quirked an eyebrow. "Where pray has Vala gotten that impression?"

Sam gave him an incredulous look that he could even ask after he'd just kissed her. She saw by his eyes he was laughing and rolled hers.

"There you are! You boys go have a good time together. Sam and I will sit here and relax for a change."

"Are you sure she knows how?" Jack asked Vala which earned him a punch in the arm from Sam. "Ow. Carter, assaulting a superior officer is a court-martialable offence."

Sam gave him an arch look. What he'd clearly been about to do wasn't exactly regulation either.

Jack grinned at her.

Vala grinned happily. Sam hadn't been this relaxed or happy in years. Had she known she'd have done something about this situation years ago. Daniel had not wanted to talk about the fight he had with Jack or Jack at all, not even a little. She'd been in the dark this entire time that Sam's unhappiness wasn't just a loveless marriage, it was losing the love of her life for reasons Vala still hadn't figured out yet but she would.

"Shoo! Shoo! Go." She told Jack, steering him out of the kitchen and towards the door where Daniel was trying to get the boys to put on their coats. They could make eyes at each other later. She had work to do.

* * *

Jack sat back on the bench watching Daniel chase the boys around, laughing. The cold was bugging Jack's bad knee and Daniel had told him to relax and just let the boys play. One of the moms sat down next to him while he checked his phone, one eye on Georgie and Jake's locations.

"So which one is yours?" She said with a smile as she set down the baby carrier between them. Jack grinned at the little bundle half covered in a blanket and made faces at her until she gurgled happily.

"The two crazy ones being loud. The blond and his messy haired brother." Jack said with a proud smile.

"Your husband seems to be having fun with them." She observed.

Jack laughed. "We aren't… he's my brother-in-law. More or less." Jack said, not sure why he'd said that.

She smirked. "Which one is it, more or less?"

Jack shrugged. "He's their mom's best friend." Jack admitted.

"Oh, you aren't married then." She said in that kind of conversational voice one adopts when they are fishing for a date.

Jack chuckled. "No. Working on it though."

"Wants the attention and kids but not the commitment, huh?" she observed.

"No, I kind of screwed up and we didn't see each other for a while."

"I'm sorry, that must have been hard on you, not seeing your kids."

"It was." He admitted and realized that he was sad that he'd missed out on so much of their lives but it wasn't Carter's fault he hadn't been around. She'd e-mailed him a couple times even though she'd avoided personal contact. If he'd been less stubborn they might have talked sooner and while she might have still had to keep Georgie's parentage to between just them, he could have been a part of his son's life and steered her away from letting the cop control her the way he had.

Daniel chose that moment to come back and plop down on the bench next to Jack. "I'm getting too old for this." Daniel told him with a rueful chuckle.

"I've been saying that for twenty years Danny." Jack told him dryly.

"Sarah! Time to go!" The mom yelled to her curly haired daughter as she slid her coat back on. "It was nice to meet you." She said with a smile. "I hope you work things out."

Jack nodded his thanks.

After she left Daniel gave Jack an arch look. "I hope you work things out?"

"Just idle chit-chat, Daniel."

"About Sam."

"Daniel."

"Jack."

"Drop it."

Daniel shrugged. They both knew the conversation wasn't over.

"I might have insinuated I was trying to get back together with their mom." Jack admitted.

"Are you?"

"No. Yes. No."

"Well that's decisive." Daniel said with an amused smile.

"Georgie figured out who I am to him."

"Oh."

"Cass was over for New Years Eve and playing with him in his room. She said something about the shrub and Georgie blew a gasket. Denied the shrub like I'd deny ol' Bocci. Carter came clean. Thought I'd be mad at her for it."

"Were you?"

"A little but I was proud of her for being honest with the kid. She could have brushed him off or denied it. It's not like the kid had any proof beyond that crazy hair of his."

"And your sparkling personality." Daniel said with a grin.

"I'm a delight." Jack said, his eyes crinkling in amusement. "I made sure Carter knew I understood her reasons. She's working on getting the shrub's parental rights severed because he doesn't call or see the kids at all and hasn't been paying his child support either."

"Bastard. Why is he trying to ruin her this way?"

"Because he can hide behind his badge. If he thought he could threaten her too I bet he probably would. I think he knows that would backfire. She has bigger bads on her side than he does on his."

Daniel nodded and gave Jack a wolfish grin that Jack returned.

"Anyway I haven't talked to her yet about it but I want to adopt the boys legally."

"Wouldn't it be easier just to do a DNA test?"

"Probably but that doesn't solve the problem of Jake and I wouldn't claim just Georgie. That's not how I work, Daniel."

"I know Jack, and for what it's worth, I hope she accepts. When will you tell her?"

"Not until after the hearing. The attorney can't file a formal motion until his rights are severed anyway and I don't want to get my hopes up before that."

"Or hers."

"Why would she hope my screwed up ass wants to adopt her kids?"

Daniel just looked at him like he was being unusually stupid.

* * *

"So Daniel tells me the house sold." Vala said as she made sandwiches.

Sam handed her a beer. "Yah. Didn't get nearly what that idiot paid for it or even close to what I owe but at least it paid down some of the debt. It's going to take me at least two years and a lot of overtime to make a dent in the balance and let's face it, it's going to be hard to prove that's not my signature on the other mortgage. They sent it to me, it's similar enough that it probably won't hold up in court."

"Oh Sam. I'm sorry. Thank goodness Jack is letting you rent the house."

"He won't let me pay him. Told me he's here all the time anyway."

"I wonder why that is." Vala said, her voice full of snark.

Sam shook her head. "He's still stuck in the same situation as before so I have no idea why he's even entertaining the idea."

"At least you admit you've noticed he's still in love with you." Vala told her sagely.

"I don't understand why after everything I've done to him."

"Did you stop being in love with him just because he broke your heart all those years ago?" Vala asked Sam pointedly.

"No, I suppose not."

"Well then there you go. Some loves you just don't get over."

Sam sighed and bit into her sandwich. "I may as well tell you in case he slips up." Sam bit her lip. "Pete isn't Georgie's father… Jack is."

Vala looked at Sam impassively and bit into her sandwich.

"You already knew." Sam said, a sick look on her face.

"I have a confession, Sam. I'm the reason Jon knows about the boys."

"You?" Sam looked at her incredulously. "How?"

"Oh well, you know me, I was curious about it after I saw Jack up close and noticed how much Georgie looks like him and how skittish you were so I borrowed that useless toggle thingy you use to check people for the Alteran marker."

"Vala. Why did you do that?!" Sam looked panicked.

Vala ignored the question. Sam should know by now that curiosity was reason enough for Vala. "Jon didn't elaborate how he knew what you did Sam but he knew how Jake is Jack's too without you having… well, you know, for years."

"Oh god."

"Sam, what did you do? You know I won't judge you. I'm the last person to ever do that. I won't tell Daniel or Jack either, at least not until you've talked to Jack."

"Vala, you absolutely cannot tell anyone ever. What I did was illegal and not just a fudge the law a little illegal but full on things you have done level illegal."

"Sam, are you saying I've been a bad influence on you?" Vala said with a grin.

"Oh you don't know the half of it."

"Well then, why don't you come tell me?" Vala told her and took her sandwich into the living room to sit among Sam's plants and Jack's photos.

Sam followed her and sat on the couch with a look of mild panic on her face. "I wasn't sure about Georgie. I thought it was a possibility but I put it out of my head. It didn't matter I told myself. Jack had made himself very clear that being with me had been the biggest mistake he'd made in a while. A couple years later when they offered me the Atlantis position after Liz died, Pete told me how much he wanted another baby. I don't know why I believed him. He didn't love Georgie. I think he knew honestly or suspected. In retrospect he was very determined to get me into his bed once he knew I had _just_ broken things off with Jack. I couldn't have been more than a week along or so but I think Pete was covering his bases, muddying the waters just in case.

"I turned down the promotion even though it meant I'd make full bird and tried to have another baby. I know my cycle. I should have gotten pregnant just as easily the second time so when I didn't I had everything checked. I was fine. I started to worry, if I was fine then it must be something on his end so to speak."

Vala chuckled at her choice of words and Sam smiled then sobered again. "I couldn't just take him to a fertility clinic without having to explain myself regarding his son who was another man's child. A man Pete vehemently hated by the way."

"Jack is everything Pete isn't Sam. Most especially I'm told by those in the know, that your father loved Jack and let Jack call him dad, something he denied Pete then tried to get both Jack and your brother to stop you from marrying him."

"Teal'c needs to shut his big yap." Sam said affectionately.

"Then where would I get all my good intel?"

Sam saluted Vala with her beer before continuing. "You don't need to have a lot of experience to examine a semen sample for fertility issues. Unlike ovum, sperm show signs of obvious anomalies under a microscope."

"Well that's a novel way of handling things." Vala said in amusement.

"Yah. I acted like it was some kink thing to suck him off under the covers and when he came I got as much as I could into a sample jar then acted like it was my new favorite thing for a few days so he wouldn't catch on. When he fell asleep though which he always did almost immediately after, I took it downstairs and examined his output. I was expecting a low count or something along those lines, something I could work with if I had myself implanted."

"He was shooting blanks." Vala said.

"Not quite. But he may as well have been. He's infertile. Sperm don't live very long outside the body but his wouldn't have mattered. They were abnormal. Almost all of them. I couldn't get pregnant with Pete if I tried."

"If it makes you feel any better Sam, you might not have been able to get pregnant with many people at all given you're a former host."

"Janet had mentioned that. She told me it wasn't impossible but it might be harder. At first though I figured if it happened easily the first time…"

Vala nodded. "That still doesn't explain how he's Jack's without Jack knowing about it."

Sam sighed. "I've had a durable power of attorney and a health care proxy for Jack for years. He was mine until the break-up as well. Neither of us really had anyone we could rely on back then. After the first time Jack was exposed to the Alteran repository and Thor's later examination and subsequent revelation that he had the genetic marker, the Asgard suggested Jack secure genetic material in the case of his untimely death."

Sam chuckled a little. "We all had a good laugh about it but Jack said something to me that popped in my head when I realized Georgie had to be his because he couldn't be Pete's. He told me half joking that if something happened to him, it was up to me to decide what happened to his 'spermcicle.'."

"He was giving you permission if you ever wanted his baby if he was gone."

"Yah, there was something in his will about it too but I'm sure he's long since changed that. After the first time Daniel died we all had wills drawn up and each of us had a copy so there would be no surprises."

"You still had legal access to his swimmers." Vala said thoughtfully but unable to be entirely serious.

Sam nodded. "He never took me off apparently and I forged the rest of the paperwork. I'd mastered his signature to help him fill out requisition forms for things he didn't care about. Sometimes Daniel and I ordered strange things as a joke and had them delivered to his office." She chuckled at the memory. "Vala what I did would land me in front of a tribunal. I wouldn't just lose my job, I'd face dishonorable discharge and Jack would probably hate me for taking advantage of his good faith."

"I don't think Jack could hate you for anything." Vala told her honestly. "Especially for giving him another child to love."

"Part of me did it because I knew if it ever came down to it, I could prove who the father of both of them was. And that if I did have to cut and run, Jack might tell me to go to hell but he'd take his kids."

Vala gave her a sympathetic look that she was considering leaving for that long and had been afraid to do so.

"Jon knew what I had to have done and he says Jack won't be angry but he's not really Jack anymore and I never hurt Jon the way I have Jack. This is going to be too much even for him. I can't tell him. Not now. Possibly not ever." She looked Vala square in the eyes. "Promise me you won't tell Daniel any of his."

Vala huffed out a sigh. "Scouts' honor. Besides, I only have one best girlfriend and if I betray her trust who will I go shopping with?"

Sam chuckled a little. "Who indeed."


	21. Late February:

The morning of the parental rights hearing Jack was straightening Georgie's jacket. "Now remember son, I know you have a vested interest in this going through but you can't say anything about Pete not being your dad. This is just like the meeting with the councilor. You don't say anything about it unless your mom or I bring it up, ok?"

"But wouldn't it help mom's case if the judge knows you're my dad not Pete?"

"In normal cases it would but not this time buddy. You're going to have to trust me and follow orders, ok?"

"Yes sir." He said ducking his head the same cute way Sam used to when she didn't really want to do so many years ago.

Jack smiled. "Good job. Let's try to do something with that hair of yours kiddo."

"It won't help."

"Yah but it can't hurt." Jack said with a chuckle.

* * *

Jack held Jake's hand while Georgie leaned on Sam. Both adults were in full dress including their decorations. It had been Lorin's suggestion as the judge handling Sam's case is sympathetic to military members struggling with family issues. She waved them in when Sam's name was called and they filed to the front to stand with the boys and Lorin. Behind them the door opened again and there was the familiar tap of dress shoes on the tile floor. Sam turned and her mouth gaped as her team, Carolyn, and Hank, all in uniform or suits entered the court room and stood at the bench behind her. Jon was there as well as well as Siler and a couple of the R&D team.

Jack touched her elbow when she looked at him, nodded and told her with his eyes that yes, they were all there to support her today.

Pete's attorney stood on the other side as defendant. Alone.

Jack narrowed his eyes.

Sam was just relieved she didn't have to see him.

The judge sat and waved everyone down to their seats except Lorin and Pete's attorney. "Let's see," He said, looking down at the paperwork he'd memorized but he liked to observe who showed up for these kinds of things to gage his final decision. "We have Lt. Colonel Doctor Samantha Carter Shanahan vs. Detective Peter Shanahan in the matter of parental rights for a George James Shanahan and Jacob Michael Shanahan ages seven, no, eight now, happy birthday George, and five respectively." The older boy smiled nervously when Judge Edward Deline addressed him.

"Thank you sir." He said in a soft but clear voice.

Judge Deline looked over the sea of blue uniforms and quirked an eyebrow. When his eyes rested on Jack, he addressed him. "General, what brings you to my courtroom today?"

"Colonel Carter is an old friend, your honor."

Edward nodded. "Mr. Kramer, where is your client?" he asked of Pete's attorney.

"Your honor, my client is a detective with the Colorado Springs police department and was unable to reschedule his duties as such for today's hearing."

"Interesting Mr. Kramer. One of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was able to 'reschedule his duties' for today's hearing and he's just a friend of the plaintiff."

James Kramer flushed slightly. "Respectfully, your honor, the general likely has staff to handle his workload if he is unavailable."

"The General does not." Jack piped up. He was notoriously understaffed due to clearance issues and did most of his paperwork himself.

"Duly noted, General O'Neill." The judge told him. "The general does not have staff to handle the fate of the world, Mr. Kramer. This is not the first time your client has made excuses to not address the needs of his children."

"Your honor, my client loves his children very much. So much so that he puts in additional hours to assure they have a home to go to should their mother be unable to provide for them."

"That slimy piece of-…" Jack started muttering furiously under his breath. He stopped because Sam had elbowed him. Hard.

"General, I'd be delighted in a few moments to have you explain your outburst but for now I'm addressing Mr. Kramer." His eyes twinkled though. It wasn't every day one of the top brass showed up for a family court case.

"My apologies, your honor." Jack said and gestured with his hand to carry on.

Judge Deline smirked. He was certain the man was used to being the man in charge and it was simply a slip of thought that he forgot he was in a court room not a briefing room.

"Ms. Kline, your records show that the defendant has not paid child support since the custody hearing, declined equal custody and has made no effort to spend time with his children in the last six months. Is that correct?"

"Yes, your honor."

"Objection your honor, my client has attempted to contact Mrs. Shanahan and she does not return his phone calls."

"Is this true, Ms. Kline?"

"Detective Shanahan has contacted my client but it has not been in an attempt to arrange visitation."

"Your honor, my client has record of the days and times he has attempted to contact Mrs. Shanahan from his phone company."

Judge Deline motioned the bailiff to hand over the records and read them. "Ms. Kline, there are several phone calls to your client's house from the defendant's cell phone. There is no record of the calls being returned."

Jack's hand shot up and his fingers went through a sequence of motions that had Jon half standing and giving Jack a questioning look.

"General?"

"My apologies, your honor. With your permission, I was asking my nephew to take the kids out for this next portion." Jack told him.

Lorin nodded in agreement. "Your honor, I have audio record of the messages left."

Georgie turned to Jack and opened his mouth to argue but Jack leaned forward and put his hands on the boy's shoulders. "I know how you feel about Pete and I know you think you are ready to hear this, but some things a boy doesn't need to hear about his father." Jack told him and cut his eyes to Jake, making it clear to the boy that this was to protect his little brother who wasn't old enough to listen to his father's cruelty.

"Yes sir." Georgie told him with a nod and his lips pressed into a serious expression.

"Granted. I'll have the bailiff get you when we are ready for them to return." He told the young man who looked remarkably like the General.

Jon stood and waited for Jack and Sam to nudge the boys forward. He took each of their hands in one of his own and left the court room. Georgie gave Jack a final worried look over his shoulder and Jack winked at him.

"Ms. Kline?" Judge Deline said, motioning with his hand.

Lorin opened her briefcase and took out a handheld audio recorder. She also pulled out the dated cassette tapes Sam had dutifully given her from her machine each time Pete had called. "The defendant did not leave a message for every call but he did leave several." She hit play.

They ranged from good luck being a single parent to the message Jack had been so furious about but which had oddly brought him and Sam closer together. "You figure out how to pay for the kids _you_ wanted." Pete's voice rang out.

Lorin stopped the tape. It wasn't the last recording but she'd made her point.

Pete's attorney's expression was thinly veiled surprised. It seemed Pete hadn't been entirely forthright with his representative. Jack decided he'd like to put another nail in that. "Ah, your honor, about my earlier outburst, it's currently relevant." He said, his hand up in supplication. Sam gave him a hard look and he ignored her. Let her be mad. This mattered.

Judge Deline motioned for Jack to join Lorin at the podium. "By all means, General O'Neill."

"Your honor, Colonel Carter is currently attempting to prove a second mortgage on her house was taken out without her knowledge by Mr. Kramer's client forging her signature. Colonel Carter was well on her way to saving her children's family home, a home Detective Shanahan bought for Colonel Carter before their marriage. Detective Shanahan defaulted on the second loan. I can't prove his goal was to leave Colonel Carter homeless but she had no knowledge of the loan until she received a notice of foreclosure. I know this because I was the one who opened the notice as I'd been helping Colonel Carter with her budget so she could get caught up on the payments."

"Helping in what way, General?" the judge asked, curious.

"My office is better suited to be near my primary concerns as a Joint Chief rather than Washington. I split my time between Peterson and the Cheyenne facility. As such I've been using Colorado Springs as my base of operation and was available to provide afternoon childcare while I worked on reports remotely. I also helped Colonel Carter secure a lower cost vehicle and encouraged her base commander to increase her workload to supply more hours."

"And her base commander would be?"

"That would be me, your honor." Landry said putting up a hand.

Judge Edward Deline gave Jack a curious look. "General, I am very curious - who has Lt. Colonel Doctor Carter Shanahan brought with her today?"

"Our family, sir. The only family some of us have. We may have met at work but each of these men and women is my brother, my sister. They have my utmost loyalty as does Colonel Carter. Each of these men and women including my nephew would lay down their life in her defense as she would them."

"I see." The judge said. "Tell me General, what came of the foreclosure?"

"General Landry, her base commander, arranged for a short sale of the house to make up some of the loss. She has since been renting my former residence as she no longer qualified for a conventional loan due to her status as a 'bad investment' according to the bean counters at the bank."

"And it is your opinion that her current financial state is directly related to Detective Shanahan's attempts to sabotage her having a safe home environment?"

"It is, your honor."

"Mr. Kramer. Were you aware your client took out a second mortgage he defaulted on at the house his children were living in?"

"It, uh, seemed to have slipped his mind." Pete's attorney told the judge.

"I see. Well, call the boys back in, bailiff. I believe I've seen and heard enough."

Once Georgie and Jake were seated the judge nodded to himself. "In the matter of Detective Peter Shanahan's parental rights being severed I find in favor of the plaintiff. Severance is granted. Mr. Kramer, your client has been derelict in duty towards the care and keeping of his children and has actively attempted to undermine the plaintiff rather than work with her to peacefully co-parent. I have no choice but to sever all rights. Dismissed."

Pete's attorney mumbled a thank you and avoided the celebrating military staff hugging and kissing each other in an extremely unprofessional way.

"Thank you Jack. I wasn't legally allowed to bring up the house because we don't have proof but you had every right to do so as a witness."

"You arranged that ahead of time?" Sam asked surprised.

"That wasn't even plan C Carter. Oh! Your honor, a moment?"

"Make it quick General. I have another case today."

"This should only take a moment." He pulled Georgie and Jake out of the fray and crouched in front of them, Sam behind the boys, curious about what he was about to do. "Your honor, are you the judge who also oversees adoption cases here?"

Judge Deline suppressed a grin. "I am."

"With your mom's permission, I'd like to formally and legally adopt you both. It will probably take a couple years though before it's settled."

"What does that mean Uncle Jack?" Jake asked confused.

"It means he'd be our dad, Jake." Georgie said, his eyes wide. "Our forever dad. Even if mom marries someone else."

Jake turned to Sam. "Is that true, mama?"

Sam had a hand over her mouth and just nodded.

Jack stood and looked Sam in the eyes. "What do you say, Carter? Mind if I take over the job? There seems to be a vacancy." His eyes were merry.

Sam looked at the judge, then Lorin, then the members of SGC behind them. Then back at Jack. "Both of them?"

"Both of them Carter. Have you seen this kid?" He said of Jake as he pulled him around to look up at his mom. "How could you resist that face?"

"But…"

"Carter."

"Sir?"

"Say yes Carter. Please. It's important to me." He told her softly.

Sam nodded her head mutely. Looked at the hopeful eyes of her boys. "Yes, yes please." She said, her voice choked with emotions.

"Ms. Kline, I would like to formally request your representation in my petition to legally adopt Georgie and Jake Shanahan."

"I am happy to say I have an opening in my client roster." She said with an amused smile.

"Looks like I'll be seeing you soon, Your Honor." Jack said with a grin.

"I look forward to it General." He said with the broadest grin Lorin had ever seen the man give in all the years she'd been appearing in his court and she'd seen him pretty pleased with how events played out.

"All right people, Judge Deline has another case. Let's get out of the way. I made reservations at Quinn's. Let's go have some celebratory fried fish." Landry told them and started herding the gaggle of airmen and civilian experts out of the court room. "Ms. Kline, you are more than welcome to join us." He told Sam's attorney.

"I really should get back to the office." She demurred.

"I'll cover your hours." Jack offered. He was only half joking.

She laughed. "Oh all right."

Jack felt a tug on his pant leg and looked down at Jake. He and his brother had been whispering about something and apparently Jake had been designated the sacrificial lamb. "What is it buddy?"

"When you adop.. ado…"

"Adopt?"

"Yah, when you abops us, does that mean our name will be O'Neill instead of Shanahan?"

Jack looked like the wind was knocked out of his sails. "That's something you need to talk to your mom about. She might want to change your names to Carter if she drops her married name legally."

"But you'd be our dad no matter what?"

"No matter what." Jack agreed thickly.

"Do I have to wait for you to abops us to call you dad?"

Jack crouched down, schooled his expression and resisted the urge to crush this sweet little boy he loved into a hug. "No son, you don't." he told the boy, his eyes gentle.

"Good." Jake hugged Jack around the neck tightly and whispered in Jack's ear. "I love you dad."

Jack who had already been hugging him gently tightened his arms. "I love you too Jake. I always will."

Sam looked away, unable to control her expression, knowing Jack would read all over her face that she hadn't been entirely honest with him.


	22. Late that evening:

**Late that evening:**

Everyone had eventually ended up at what was currently being referred to by their friends as Jack and Sam's house or Sam and Jack's house depending on who you asked. With the exception of one Lorin Kline who enjoyed her fish and watching Jack and Sam interact with their children before heading home herself and wishing perhaps handsome young Jon O'Neill was just a tad older.

Everyone had eaten too much then gone back to the house to eat a little too much more. Daniel and Vala had passed out on the sofa bed in the den. Well, Daniel had passed out, Vala had given up on pouring him into the car and opted to just stay at Jack's insistence. Carolyn who had to work the next day had stayed sober and driven Cam home after Teal'c assured her that he'd take her father back to his house before turning in for the night himself.

The boys who had clung to Jack like barnacles most of the night in spite of reassurances that he really did mean it and wasn't going to change his mind about it in the morning were cuddled up like puppies with Hutch in Jack's old recliner that had been brought into the living room.

Sam was currently sprawled half asleep across Jack's chest on the couch. Jack himself had stretched out there as the party wound down having no intention at all of leaving any time soon for the base even though he'd drank little. Sam was similarly mostly sober, suffering more from emotional exhaustion over the day's events.

Currently Jack was tracing lazy patterns on Sam's skin where her sweater had ridden up on her back. She hummed sleepily with pleasure. Not really aware she said it out loud at first, Sam murmured "Keep that up and you won't have to sleep on the couch."

"Make comments like that and you're going to wake up with a really silly smile on your face tomorrow Carter." He said sleepily and nuzzled her ear affectionately.

Sam's brain caught up with their conversation and she lifted her head to look in his eyes. "Jack." She said to him, her voice soft.

"Oh this is a really bad idea Samantha." He told her before sliding his fingers into her hair and claiming her mouth in a searing kiss.

Sam hummed in agreement but kissed him back, a soft sigh of surrender escaped her lips as her fingers tugged his shirt free.

Jack sat up, not breaking contact but his lips moved from her mouth to her neck and trailed hot moist licks and nibbles on his way toward her shoulder. He knew what turned her on and she'd made it pretty clear he had a green light here. He wasn't stopping unless she told him to.

Normally he'd be perfectly happy to make love to her on the couch but the kids were asleep in the chair a few feet away so he worked his way into a standing position, his fingers having slid under her sweater and stroked the silky skin of her sides and back before dipping into her waistband. He tugged and nudged her in the direction of the kitchen and therefore the stairs.

Rather than object, Sam's fingers were eagerly exploring him back. Her mouth trailing along his jaw, his ear then claiming his mouth again only to moan and invite his tongue to invade her. They almost stumbled when they reached the stairs and broke the kiss long enough to look into each other's eyes. Heat and desire reflected in each other's gaze and without a word they quietly moved up the stairs side by side only to draw together at the upper landing.

"Sam.."- he got no further. She put her fingers over his mouth then pulled him by his waistband to the bedroom. His bedroom, her bed. She was afraid if they talked it might break the spell. They stumbled back onto the bed and he pulled her sweater up and off. She was self-conscious of her post baby body for just a moment but the desire in his eyes didn't abate at the sight of her softer stomach or the stretch makes on her breasts as he removed her bra and soon she forgot he hadn't been looking at her body for years.

Jack tugged his tee-shirt off and pulled her close, skin to skin as he went back to nibbling and tasting the sensitive spots on her neck and shoulders.

Sam moaned softly and arched her hips against his which made him growl with lust. He rolled over on top of her and pinned her hips under his own, pressing into her and grinding against her as he grazed his teeth on the base of her neck. She curled her hands against his chest then slid them around his sides, pulling him harder against her.

Jack popped the button of her pants and tugged them until he could slide his fingers against her. "Jack" she breathed and kicked at her pant legs until the offending garment was no longer on her. "Please." She asked him softly. "Please."

Jack needed no further encouragement and made quick work of his belt and button himself. He pulled his jeans and shorts off in a single motion before returning to the cradle of her legs. She was ready for him and unable to resist the soft pleas from her he slid into her as he claimed her mouth. Locked against her his he lifted his head and gazed at her in wonder. Giving her one final chance to regain her senses and tell him to leave but all she did was grip him by his hips and arch her hips into him hard.

Jack wasn't a young man and it had been many long years since he'd last made love to a woman but his body had not forgotten what it was to make love to this woman and they fell into a familiar rhythm that had her whimpering his name over and over and just as she was about to find her release his fingers slipped between her folds to stroke her clit until her orgasm went from sweet release to a haze of white light and uncontrolled spasms.

He claimed her mouth before she cried out, her 'ah' of release muffled by his swift tongue and he found himself unable to resist the pull of her trembling body he rammed his hips uncontrollably against hers as he joined her before collapsing against her body, clutching her as he shook with the aftershock of how quickly they had both lost control.

He lay there panting for a moment, eyes closed, his face buried against her hair. The hands whose fingers had dug into his ass as she came, leaving furrows and having been part of what drove him to lose control slid around his waist and held him tightly to her. Unwilling or unable to let him disengage.

He should tell her they shouldn't have done this but he couldn't hurt her that way again. He never should have hurt her that way in the first place. He needed to enact the contingency plan that was all. His kids deserved a father who taught them what it was to be loved and to show their mom she's loved. He couldn't do that without neutralizing the threat so he'd neutralize the threat. It was what he did. In any case, she deserved to know how he felt about her.

Sam let out a sleepy sated hum that was so familiar and he'd missed every day of his life for the last nine years. Jack sighed. They could talk in the morning. For now, he'd let her sleep. He tugged at the comforter they had swept aside with his toe and worked it over them as he slid off her so he could pull her back against his chest.

"I love you so much Samantha Carter. Nothing can change that." He told her even though she was asleep. He'd tell her again in the morning and he'd keep telling her until she believed him and had the courage to say it back.


	23. The next morning:

**The next morning:**

At five thirty on the dot, Sam blinked her eyes open to a large black nose and a long wet tongue licking her chin hopefully. "Gah. Hutch. Gross." She grumbled and moved to get up only to find her hips pinned by a warm arm. Sam turned and stared into beautiful brown eyes regarding her silently.

He tugged her back down and murmured 'C'mere' before claiming her mouth until she whimpered with need.

"Jack?"

"Carter."

"Oh god, what did we do?" Memories flooded back from the night before of sleepy seduction and really phenomenal sexual release some time last night.

"Do you... not remember?" He asked in concern. He was certain she'd been sober.

"No, no I remember what we did. Oh boy, do I remember what we did." She said in such a way that earned her a smug self satisfied grin. "What did we do?"

He hummed in thought. "We can handle this whichever way you like. Choice A is that you and I made love because we never really stopped loving each other and couldn't take it anymore. Choice B is that both of us were drunk or so tired that we didn't really use our brains and fell into bed because it's been a long few months and we were drunk or over tired, possibly both and horny. Or if you want to be really creative we can both pretend we have no recollection at all of what happened last night and it is entirely my imagination that there is a hickey on your left breast."

Sam blinked at him. He'd just give her a pass. Just like that. Because he loved her. "Dammit, why do you have to make it so hard to not love you?" She asked him finally.

"Is that a trick question Carter because I just woke up in bed with the woman I love who hasn't got so much as a stitch of clothing on her and right now I want to kick the dog out so I can remind her of _exactly_ what we did last night."

"Dammit Jack." But her tone was a regretful sigh and Jack's face fell.

"Ok, we pretend nothing happened. I'll go let the dog out." He said stiffly.

"That's not it." She said sharply.

"Then what is it Carter because I've got _no_ problem thumbing my nose at the government on this one. Clearly how I feel about you isn't going to just clear up. God knows I've tried." He said, his laugh a humorless bark of self flagellation.

Sam drew her knees up, crossed her arms over them and put her face down. Jack didn't realize she was crying until her shoulders started to shake.

"Oh no you don't. You don't get to fold into yourself and not tell me what's wrong Sam. Talk to me. That's an order if it needs to be."

She lifted her tear streaked face. Her lower lip trembled. "I… promise me you'll take care of the kids."

"Sam are you _dying_?" He asked, mildly panicked.

"No." She said miserably and shook her head. "It's just after I tell you I'll be going to jail." The last word was muffled by her face buried back into her arms.

"Stop that Carter. You couldn't have done anything _that_ bad." Jack couldn't imagine anything Sam would be wiling to do besides sleep with him obviously that would get her into that kind of trouble.

"How am I supposed to go after Pete for forging my name when I've done the same thing?"

"Sam, what are you talking about?" Jack was at an utter loss. She was making no sense. "What did you forge?"

"Your signature on... on…" she trailed off and looked sick.  
"Ok, so you signed my name on something. Big deal. I'm sure you had your reasons Carter, it's not the end of the world."

She choked on a slightly unhinged laugh. "You won't say that when I tell you exactly what I forged your name on."

In his gentlest voice because she was clearly deeply upset at the very idea of telling him, Jack asked her. "Sam, just tell me. It will be ok, I promise whatever it is, it will be ok."

She looked at him a long moment. It was too late not to tell him now. "Pete's infertile." She said softly.

"What does that have to do with any… ah." Jack looked thoughtful. "So… Jake is…?" his finger flipped between them.

"Your son." She said sadly.

Jack's expression was blank at first while he put together what she'd actually done.

Sam sighed despondently.

"Well that explains an awful lot." He finally said and before she understood what was going on he'd crowded her and pressed her back against the bed and was kissing her senseless.

"Jack?" She asked him in confusion. This was not even close to the reaction she had expected.

"Sam, I spent the last couple weeks thinking out how to tell that little boy that it doesn't matter who your biological parent is, the man that raises you and loves you is your father. I don't have to now. When he's old enough I can tell him the truth. He probably won't have the bad memories of Pete like Georgie does but it's still going to cause trust issues. Shit. I'm going to have to deal with that other thing sooner than I'd planned because of this. Dammit." He took Sam's face between his hands. "You should have just asked. I'd have done it anyway."

"What?"

"You heard me."

"Why though?"

"Sam, you once convinced me to put a snake in my head knowing how much I _hate_ those things after what they did to you and I did it anyway because I love you and you asked me to. You think a little lying to your jackass ex-husband was going to bother me?" He grinned. "I'd have _loved_ knowing that his kids were _my_ boys because he's a defective piece of crap."

Sam still looked incredulous. "I guess Jon does know how you'd react." She said absently.

"Wait. Jon knows?" he asked alarmed.

"And Vala."

"Vala? Why does Vala know? Who else knows?"

"Jon won't tell anyone and I swore Vala to secrecy."

"Sam!" He said now very alarmed. "Why are you telling everyone but me this?"

"I didn't _tell_ them. Vala wanted to check if Daniel was right about Georgie and Jon couldn't give Jake a good reason why he couldn't try too."

"Oy."

"Yah."

"Well, this is a problem." He said.

"No kidding." She sighed.

"Still not your craziest idea though."

"Close."

"Real close. Yup."

Hutch woofed.

"I'll let the dog out. Go shower. You smell like lust." He smirked. "I'm not complaining but Vala will notice."

She nodded slowly.

As he led the dog out after he'd thrown his shirt and pants on. "Oh and Carter?"

"Yah?"

"This wasn't a one time deal. We will be doing this again." He waved his hand back and forth between them for emphasis. Then he left with the dog.

Sam fell back against the pillows. "Yah sure, you betcha," She sing-songed in a fair imitation of his accent when he got silly and deliberately got as folksy as he could manage.


	24. Ten minutes later:

**Ten minutes later:**

Sam came down dressed and followed the smell of brewing coffee.

"Good morning." Jack said to her and tugged her against him before nuzzling her ear and claiming her mouth in a gentle kiss.

Sam melted into him happily and kissed him back.

Daniel wandered towards the smell of coffee himself and observed his friends making out in the kitchen. He shook his head and ran his hand through his hair then moved forward and nudged them aside without a word to get to the coffee cups.

They broke the kiss when he nudged them and Sam turned a cute shade of pink.

Daniel made an absent motion of dismissal. "Didn't see a thing." He told them as he poured cream into his cup of over sugared coffee and wandered back out of the kitchen like his best friends making out happened every day.

He returned to the den and sat on the folding bed, his back propped against the back of the couch and waited for his wife to join him in the land of semi wakefulness as he knew she would at the smell of coffee herself. She groggily came to and blinked at him as he sipped his beverage.

"Where's mine?"

"In the kitchen with our clearly not in love with each other friends."

She looked at him with wide eyes.

"Oh yah, clearly not in love with each other." He said with a smirk. "They were making out by the coffee pot."

"Were they now?" She asked her eyes sparkling. "And what stage of making out were they in?"

"I'd say cuddly kissy post sex making out." Daniel said thoughtfully, his eyes amused.

"Really?"

"Yah, about to jump each other making out is more grindy skin biting type."

Vala snorted in agreement. "Why didn't you bring me my coffee Daniel?

"And let you miss out on the free show?" he said and sipped his coffee.

Vala threw off the covers and headed for the kitchen, now intensely curious. She heard them talking softly and knew she ought to respect their privacy. She wasn't going to but she ought to.

Jack's voice floated through the hall, low and soft. "If you want another kid I can get it reversed. I mean, I only had one because after a few years I didn't think I could fix anything."

"You don't have to Jack. We have the boys and they adore you."

"You sure?"

"Don't get me wrong, I'd love to have another child with you but it's not a deal breaker."

"All right, keep me in the loop if you change your mind Carter."

The talking stopped so Vala figured they had gone back to making out with each other. She grinned ear to ear. Oh they had sealed the deal all right. And making plans too. "Good morning." She said brightly as she reached past them to grab a mug. They had moved over a little but not much from where Daniel had nudged them aside. "So when's the wedding?" She asked in casual amusement and watched her best friend's eyes go wide in mild terror.

"Vala, it's not…" Sam started to tell her, trying to defuse any idea Vala might have of white gowns and tuxedos.

"Oh it's _exactly_ like that Carter." He said and held her eyes with his own.

"But…"

"I told you. Contingency plan." He kissed her forehead. "Barring that, I retire in two years either way. Conveniently adjacent to the adoption of my boys." He said grinning.

Vala wordlessly saluted them with her mug of coffee and left the kitchen. When she returned to the den her smile was delighted and amused.

"So how was the show?"

"Oh lovely. I'd get your suit cleaned if I were you." She told him with a smirk.

He goggled at her for a moment. "That's…"

"Utterly expected, darling."

"I figured it would take them longer."

"I believe they've had some short messy haired help."

"Speaking of, I'm surprised those two aren't up yet."

"They were still sound asleep when I glanced through the pass through. Little mites were tuckered out after their busy day."

"Unlike their mom apparently." Daniel said in amusement.

"How in the world did we sleep through them doing that anyway? The den is right under their bedroom."

"You wouldn't believe how quietly military people can have sex. I once accidently walked in on them when Sam was living in Nevada. It was quiet so I thought they were sleeping. They were definitely not sleeping." He said ruefully. He was pretty sure Jack had known he was there but he hadn't skipped a beat, probably to keep Sam from realizing she had an audience and Daniel had slipped back out without a word.

Vala chuckled. There was nothing quite like walking in on your best friends drilling each other.


	25. An hour later:

**An hour later:**

The kids had finally surfaced. The adults were organizing breakfast in the kitchen barely large enough to accommodate four easily amused adults that were spending more time teasing each other then accomplishing their task of making batter and frying meat.

The boys had been shuffled off to the den to watch cartoons so they missed out on their father juggling eggs until one broke in his hand and the rest of the adults laughing at his expression when sticky slimy goop dripped from his fingers. He was busy washing them while Sam wiped up the floor when a late model sedan pulled into the driveway. A black and white pulled in behind him and popped off a two note warning.

Jack and Sam exchanged a look. The boys chose that moment to return to the kitchen. "What was that mom?" Jake asked, not being as familiar with the sound of a police siren as his older brother.

"Boys," Jack's voice went to command mode. "Go on upstairs. Stay there and be quiet until your mom or I give you the all clear, ok?"

Georgie nodded and dragged his little brother out of the room. "But I want to see what's going on," Jake protested

"Shut up stupid." Georgie said more but he had drifted out of ear shot. Jack knew Georgie had figured out the guest bathroom they shared was over the garage behind his observation deck and they would be able to overhear the conversation without being seen.

Jack looked at Sam and Vala as he cranked the kitchen window open slightly. "You two stay here. Daniel." He didn't say any more but his eyes cut to the door and Daniel followed him out.

Sam and Vala exchanged a look and flanked the window where they couldn't be seen.

All this happened in seconds. Jack was already out the door flanked by Daniel who, while not in possession of the steely eyed killer look Jack wore like a second skin, he was an intimidating looking man himself, even in Jack's borrowed sweatpants.

Jack strode forward and stopped where the walkway met his drive as Shanahan was getting out of the sedan.

"That's far enough. You aren't welcome here detective." Jack told the other man in an easy sort of voice, his posture deceptively loose.

"I have a right to see my kids." Pete told Jack as the cops got out of their car, one of them said something into his radio.

Jack tilted his head and smiled meanly. "Not as of yesterday… detective." He looked at Daniel for confirmation as though he wasn't sure. Daniel nodded firmly. "Ah yes, yesterday. Where were you detective? I was there. Danny here was there, Sam and the kids were there. Her CO and her CO's CO were even there. Did you forget where the courthouse is by chance? Like you forgot where the house you bought Sam but made sure was foreclosed on, no matter what she did to get caught up was?"

"Sir, detective Shanahan is trying to arrange visitation with his children, that's all."

Jack looked at the cop, smiled. "Officer… Davies? Has the detective informed you he missed his court date yesterday regarding his parental rights? He's no longer legally their father. If you like, my buddy here can bring out the paperwork but if you call the courthouse, friend of the court will confirm Detective Shanahan has lost the legal right to see his former kids."

The cop looked uncertainly at Pete.

"A temporary set back. I'll be reinstated." Pete assured the cops.

"I really doubt it buddy." Jack said with a grin.

"You don't have a legal right to keep me from my kids."

"Don't I?" Jack asked as he tilted his head and frowned as though intrigued. "Probably not. But I do have the right to keep you legally from _my_ kids." Jack had a glint in his eye that anyone who knew him would realize he was holding all the face cards and they should just fold.

Pete wasn't a good card player and missed Jack's tell. "That's cute. You think because she shacked up with you again that those are your kids now? She left you for me. Jumped right in my bed without a second thought and I gave her what you never did. Her kids." Pete said, a snide smile on his face.

But Jack laughed. Jack laughed like he was in on the best joke of his life and only he held the knowledge of the punch-line. "You sure about that, 'detective'?" He said, still laughing.

Realizing he might not be on firm ground Pete did grasp that perhaps Jack knew the oldest boy might be his. "Fine, you can keep that moody little shit you probably spawned but only one of those kids is yours, old man."

Jack's eyes went cold. "When you decided to marry her, that's when you should have committed to her kids being your own even if you weren't sure. Especially after going to that much work to bed her when she was too upset to fight you off." But now Jack's mean smile got wider. "You also should have gotten your junk checked more often. You're shooting blanks buddy."

Pete glared at him. "Not that it matters to you but that's pretty unlikely."

"Is it? Then how come I have paperwork from Family Center for Fertility Clinic with my name on it signing off on Sam's insemination… with my sperm."

"I don't give a shit how you two made the older boy, that's your problem." Pete said with a shrug.

"We made _him_ the old fashioned way. Jake, on the other hand… You wanted another kid but your swimmers were trash so she asked me if she could use my POA to start the paperwork. Of course I agreed because I love her and would do anything for her." Jack's smile was genuine now. "Both of them are mine Pete, and I can prove it so you can take your friends and get off my property now. I wouldn't suggest trying to get custody of those boys either. I can prove both are biologically my sons.

"Oh and Pete, you never loved them anyway. Any of them. You only married Sam out of spite. If you ever loved her you wouldn't have tried to ruin her life so she'd have to come back to you. That's probably the reason she came to me about the second pregnancy. She knew if push came to shove, I'd never let anyone hurt my kids by taking them from their mom. Only a total asshole does shit like that."

Jack turned his back and walked away to the door.

"This isn't over." Pete yelled.

Jack turned. He put up a finger thoughtfully. "You know what, you're right. It's not. I need to legally adopt the boys seeing as they don't have a dad now other than me. Oh!" Jack grinned. "I need to retire and marry your ex-wife and get the kids names changed. Mine, hers, doesn't really matter. As long as there's nothing left to remind them of the man who didn't make them and couldn't bring himself to love them even when he thought he had." Jack shook his head, almost sadly. "That's the difference you know. I loved those boys even when I thought they were yours because I love Sam and the only thing that matters is that those kids need someone to love them. It never mattered to me whose dick they came out of. It shouldn't have to you either."

Pete's face fell. He was being erased and even if he fought it, it was unlikely he'd win.

"Oh and don't get any bright ideas about hassling Sam with your buddies. Officer Davies say hi to Rick for me. I'll get with him about Toys for Tots in a few weeks. I've got some ideas." He told the uniformed lieutenant behind Pete. Rick was his chief and a former Marine sergeant.

"Yes sir General." The quiet radio conversation had been to confirm the ownership of the house. Pete had bitten off _way_ more than he could chew here and he really wanted to abandon the guy to his fate on this one. The general seemed to have the upper hand here and Detective Shanahan needed to cut his losses.

Jack rotated his shoulder indicating to Daniel the conversation was over and they were heading back in. "Have a nice life Shanahan. Stay out of mine." Jack turned and walked away.

"All right, let's go." Davies said to his partner and they went back to their squad car.

"That bastard." Pete muttered.

"Yah yah. Probably should have paid your child support and not been such a jerk to your ex-wife Pete. You knew all her friends were crazy." Davies told him. Working together didn't make them friends.

"Shut up." He snarled and slammed the car door as he plopped into the driver's seat.

* * *

"The fertility clinic?"

"What can I say, I'm a generous guy."

"You really enjoyed telling him that, didn't you."

"You have _no_ idea Danny."

"So you've known all along then."

"Nope. I just found out this morning that I signed that paperwork. Gosh it was nice of me to do that and forget all about it until now." He said with a grin.

"Wait, this morning?!"

* * *

Upstairs Jake turned to his brother. "What's a fertility clinic?"

"It's where people go to help them have kids when they can't on their own." The eight year old told his brother.

"What did Jack mean?"

"About what?"

"He said both of us were his."

"Well, he's adopting us both."

"Yah but he said it like he's our dad, like our real dad."

Georgie bit his lip then shrugged. "If mom marries Jack and he adopts us, he'll be our dad."

Jake didn't look like he believed his brother. "I think he's our real dad and Pete is a big fat liar."

"I think your brain is full of beans." Georgie said.

"I see you filled our esteemed General in on your previous transgressions." Vala said archly as she watched Pete's car pull away.

"I better hack my email and fake a conversation from six years ago asking for his help." Sam said thoughtfully. She hadn't expected him to handle the situation _quite_ that way but in retrospect she probably should have. Jack was willing to do some fairly sketchy things to protect the people he loved. Her heart had done a gleeful little dance when he'd told Pete he planned to marry her. They had talked around the idea this morning but hadn't addressed it head on. She should probably be mad that he did that without confirming she wanted to get married to him at this point but she didn't see a reasonable reason not to. He clearly loved her regardless of whatever crazy things she did

"Yah, he's the sort that would dig around just to cause trouble."

"I wish he'd got his ass shot off the first time." Sam said spitefully.

"I can still arrange that Carter." Jack said as he came in, having gotten the gist of the conversation. He plopped a kiss in the edge of her forehead before going to yell up the stairs. 'All clear.' to the boys. Hutch barked.


	26. Next Monday:

The staff of the SGC stood at attention. Jack and Hank stood with Cam to award Vala a silver medal of Valor for saving Sam's life even though it meant they had to go back for her. Concluding that, Hank called Sam up to the Gate platform that was currently serving double duty as a dais.

"For her continued dedication and heroism, it is my great honor to promote Lt. Colonel Samantha Carter to full rank of Colonel with all rights and obligations therein." Hank told the assembled members of the SGC and saluted Sam crisply. Behind him Jack and Cam saluted her as well, Jack's face serious and impassive, Cam looking pleased. She should have made full bird before him years ago.

Sam's posture went from attention to full on brimming with alacrity attention as she saluted her commanding officers. "Thank you sirs." She said clearly with a beaming grin for the group of them.

Cam and Hank stood on either side of her and switched out her oak leaves for her eagles on her shoulders. She looked past them at Jack whose expression was impassive but his eyes spoke volumes for how proud he was of her.

Cam went back to the podium with a wave of Jack's hand and smiled at everyone. "Unlike Colonel Carter's last CO, I am _not_ a man of few words." He waited for the chuckles to die down. "I've had the pleasure of being awarded the medal of honor from Colonel Carter personally. She's saved our collective asses more times than we can count. I can't imagine anyone more deserving of the promotion to full bird." He said and smiled when Sam bit her lip to hide a smile. "Congratulations Colonel Carter. This has been a long time in coming." He said and stepped away to shake her hand then salute her again.

An hour later everyone was back in their base uniforms and SG-1 was sitting in the commissary together. Jack would eventually join them but he didn't want it to look like he was treating SG-1 with favoritism even though he had every reason to do so.

"The boys are going to be really excited to see your chickens Sam." Cam told her.

Sam laughed. "Please tell me you didn't teach them to call them chickens Cam." She asked him.

"Nah. I'm pretty sure Jack has that covered. By the way, I figured he'd join us by now. If nothing else to hassle Jackson."

"O'Neill does enjoy tormenting Daniel Jackson." Teal'c said in his version of amused "It is far more likely that he would like to congratulate Colonel Carter on her promotion."

"So are we going out to dinner tonight gang?" Cam asked.

"Oh, I don't know, it's probably not fair to General O'Neill not to invite him but then I wouldn't have a sitter." Sam said with a sigh. "It's all right, we can do something over the weekend."

"Well, I didn't even know I was invited." Jack said from behind her and Sam started a little.

"Well of course you're invited sir. You will always have a place with SG-1." She said with a smile she reserved only for him that wasn't lost on anyone at their table though Daniel and Vala had agreed to not discuss the incident with Pete on base.

"Handy that." He said absently and snagged a chair to sit behind Daniel so he could poke at the other man easier. The fact that it was strategically angled away from Sam giving every appearance of propriety and still have private conversations with their eyes was simply speculation on the part of her team.

"I know it's tradition your CO cover it but why don't we hit someplace the kids will be happy with too and I'll grab them on our way so we don't have to juggle cars?"

"What about that all you can eat Chinese place Jack? Daniel asked."

"The sushi there is only average but the kids will like the Mongolian barbeque." Cam agreed.

"All right, Golden Rooster it is." Jack agreed. "Speaking of, nice chickens Carter." He said gesturing at her shoulders.

"Ha! I told you he'd teach the kids to call them chickens." Cam said pointing a finger triumphantly.

"You leave my chickens alone both of you." She said petting one comfortingly. "There, there, the mean General didn't mean it, you're a perfectly nice chicken."

Vala was the first to laugh and after a moment everyone was too except for Jack who had a soft smile on his face that his Carter was back to being the woman he'd known and not the terrified woman desperately clawing at life trying not to drown in her problems. He hoped their boys never remembered the Carter they grew up with the first few years of their life. Their boys. Jack's face settled into a rather silly smile.

"Sir?" Cam asked him, wondering at the General's mood.

"Just remembering something Mitchell. I have some work to do before I get out of here so I'll meet you guys topside 1600?"

"Absolutely sir." Cam told him.

"All right then." Jack discreetly kicked Daniel's chair and cut his eyes to Teal'c as he got up and left.

"I uh, have some artifacts to catalog." Daniel said a few moments later and got up and left.

"I must attend to my duties." Teal'c told them and left too.

The remainder of the team looked at each other in confusion then looked at Sam. Sam shrugged. Just as confused as they were. "Well, don't look at me. I have no idea either." She told Cam and Vala.

"I bet I know what they are up to." Vala says cryptically and Sam gives her a hard look. "I very much doubt the base is the kind of place they would strategically plan that sort of thing Vala." Sam told her archly."

"Well, it is Jack. His ideas are usually at least as crazy as yours."

"She's got a point Sam."

Sam gave them both flat looks and Vala cracked up. "I told you she'd been around him too much. Now she's starting to mean mug like he does to Daniel all the time." Vala chortled.

Cam grinned. "Indeed." He said in a fake cheesy version of Teal'c's voice which made Sam laugh.

"Both of you knock it off. I should get back to my lab anyway." Sam told them.

"Congratulations Sam." Vala told her warmly.

"Thank you Vala." Sam said with a little grin and left the dining hall.

After Sam left, Cam turned to Vala. "All right, what was that all about?"

"Well, years ago before something they won't talk abut happened, When Sam wasn't in General O'Neill's chain of command, they were dating and I think he wants to date her again."

"Is that a good idea given their ranks?"

"He's adopting her kids Cam. I don't think the General gives a Tok'ra's touchy."

"Fair enough."

* * *

Later that evening everyone had changed into their civvies and met up at the overly cute all you can eat bonanza decorated with blissfully happy yellow chickens everywhere. Jack and Sam had met back at the house and opted to ride in his SUV together rather than take two cars as he could just drop them off at the house before heading back to base.

Currently they were trying to corral two visually overloaded little boys through the food line so they could tag team getting their own plates. Ultimately they got tired of the kids taking too much time and Sam went back and grabbed two more plates and picked things out for the adults, knowing without asking, what he'd eat. He could have done the same for her but the boys were starting to bicker and Jack was better at handling their squabbles than she was.

Sam took her and Jack's plates back to the table and waited for him to come back with the boys who they put between them. A tactical error in parenting thinking it was best they hemmed the boys in rather than separating them.

It started with Jake swiping a baby corn off Georgie's plate when he was talking to Jack. Georgie had looked suspiciously at his plate as though he knew something was missing but couldn't figure out what. Then Georgie decided he didn't like the pork balls and put his other one on his brother's plate knowing his brother didn't like pork balls at all or so Jake thought he ought to know even though they rarely went to dinner in the last two years while their mom tried unsuccessfully to save the house.

Jack had popped the contested pork ball in his mouth and arched a scarred eyebrow at them both, daring them to continue. This tactic worked for almost five minutes exactly.

"You ate one of my corn." Jake accused his brother, having forgotten his earlier theft.

"Did not."

"Did too. I saw you do it."

"No you didn't."

"Yes I did."

"Boys, enough." Sam admonished them both.

"Sorry mom." The chorused and glared at each other.

Jack and Sam went back to talking to the adults, each thinking the other had an eye on the boys.

Georgie stole another corn off Jake's plate.

"Stop it!"

"I didn't do anything." He said around his mouth full of purloined baby corn.

"Quit taking my corn."

"You took one of mine."

"You took one back."

"So?"

"So you just took another one."

"Did not."

"Did so."

"Not."

"Carter."

"Sir?" she said absently not even realize she'd done it because he'd used his 'get Sam's attention' voice to address her.

Daniel snorted at Jack's annoyed expression.

"For cripes sake, Sam could you manage to not 'sir' me to death in public?"

"What?"

"You just called me 'sir'."

"I did?"

"Carter." He said, his voice frustrated.

Suddenly it registered. She had. Sam gave him an abashed look. "Sorry. Did you want something?"

"Are you sure you didn't mix up the samples? That one's acting like Daniel." He said pointing at Jake.

Sam's eyes went wide for a second until she realized he was teasing her. "Well I asked for Harrison Ford but they said they were fresh out." She told him.

"Besides, I was around, she didn't need a fertility clinic for that from me."

Jack looked like he wanted to choke Daniel and Teal'c laughed.

"What's going on?" Cam asked, confused.

"We'll tell you when you're older Shaft." Jack told him which earned him a dour look.

"I think Sam and Daniel would have made lovely babies together." Vala told them, her eyes merry at the horrified looks on Daniel and Sam's faces.

"It would be like…"

"Sex with my sister." He finished.

Jack laughed. "T, remember when we had to switch up who had to marry Sam in whichever back-water village we ended up in to keep the peace and we had to take Daniel out of the kissing Sam at the end of the ceremony rotation?" He said chuckling.

"Indeed O'Neill. Daniel Jackson was most unconvincing in his regard for Samantha Carter." Teal'c clearly was remembering such incidents with humor.

"Eventually we gave up and just let Jack do it every time because he looked like he was going to punch someone otherwise." Daniel supplied.

"Aw, that's sweet."

Jack looked uncomfortable and Daniel nudged him in the side. "Relax Jack. No one here but us chickens."

The table erupted in laughter.

* * *

"I'll carry him up." Jack said of Jake who had passed out on the way home.

"All right. Georgie, come on buddy, time for bed."

"Don'wanna." He mumbled.

"I know kiddo but we're home now."

"Fine." He huffed sleepily and swatted Sam's hands away when she tried to unbuckle him. "Not a baby mom."

"I know." She agreed and gently led him into the house and to the stairs. She followed him up and nudged him to his bedroom.

Jack came out of Jake's bedroom. "I put him in bed clothes and all." He admitted.

Sam yawned. "S'all right. One night won't matter. Thank you for dinner." She said with a soft smile.

"My pleasure." He slid his fingers into her hair and tilted her head back so her luminous blue eyes met his. "Congratulations Carter. You earned it." He smiled a little. "I'm going to do what I wanted to do when I got to promote you last time."

"Last time you kept looking at me like you wanted to kiss me."

"The lady gets a prize." He said with a small chuckle and claimed her mouth gently. He wanted more and he knew she wouldn't turn him down but they needed to be careful. One thing tended to lead to another and people would start to notice that he wasn't signing back into base at night or worse, signing in very late which implied he was hiding something.

When she let out a soft needy sigh, he broke the kiss. "Me too but we can't do that too often or someone is going to notice."

"I know. I just wish…"

"Me too. Me too. I'll see you tomorrow morning bright and early."

"All right."

He gave her one final quick kiss. "Night Carter. I love you." He grinned and was down the stairs silently in seconds.

"Love you too Jack." She said to the empty stairwell. He heard her anyway.


	27. March 1st:

"Look, Teal'c and Daniel and I have it all worked out. We'll go grab him, bring him back here, have him dig up whatever he can, put the screws on that asshole and take him back to his happy little kingdom." Jack was explaining to Hank in Hank's office.

"Jack, that's still a terrible plan. First, you don't know if there's any dirt to dig up. Second, you haven't been in the field for almost a decade. Third, do you want Sam to kill me for letting you do this because she _will_ kill me."

"He's dirty. I just need to know in which way."

"Well, he's a congressman Jack, of course he's dirty. But half the stuff they do these days, the constituents just don't care."

"Yah but the state attorney's office might be really interested in the matter, or the US attorney depending on what he's been up to."

"Can't you get that CIA agent you were friendly with to check things out first?"

Jack looked at him hard. "No Hank, I am not asking Kerry Johnson for _anything_ involving Sam's career."

"It was just a thought. Jack, you need to find something, anything out before I can green light this idea of yours. Yes I know you have every right to override me and probably will if I drag my feet but dammit Jack, if you get injured in the field that woman really will kill me and make it look like a suicide."

Jack chuckled. "A year ago she was afraid of her own shadow."

"A year ago her marriage was falling apart and she was desperate. You did a good thing Jack. I felt like I was losing one of my best people by inches with the way things were going."

Jack nodded. "It was Mark that called me. Filled me in on what had been going on the last few years. Told me we never should have let her go through with the wedding and he was sorry he ever introduced them to each other."

"It just would have been someone else Jack."

Jack nodded sagely. "Yah, but at least it might have been someone who loved her. I'm not saying I'd have been happy about it but I could have been at peace if he'd really loved her."

"You're a liar and you know it Jack."

Jack smiled ruefully. "Yah, but it was worth a shot. I'll see what I can dig up but I'm telling you, the guy we want will already know."

"He hasn't been back to earth in a decade Jack. How do you know he'll even help?"

"Because it's Carter, Hank."

* * *

On the other side of the country a congressman received a courier packet from the Colorado Springs Police Department. Inside was a note and a thumb drive he knew his people had already examined for computer viruses.

_You don't know me, but we have a common enemy and I think I can help both of us to eliminate that enemy. On this thumb drive are audio recordings of conversations and various other details indicating a particularly troublesome General is committing an egregious frat reg violation up to and including fathering two children with another man's wife._

"Well, isn't that interesting." He said as he looked through the contents. There were photos of both the boys, O'Neill with his doxy clearly in his lap. He hadn't even gotten to the recordings. "Well, well, well. Isn't it just my lucky day?" He said gleefully.

* * *

Halfway across the known galaxy, an average looking man of about Jack's age received intel from one of his many informants. "Earth?"

The young man nodded. "Jack and Sam to be exact, my lord."

"Really?" I figured they would be off the radar and have settled down and had a bunch of kids together by now." He said as he thumbed through the information. "That idiot." He exclaimed. "I'm going to kill him."

"My lord?"

"Nothing, nothing, just some moron on my home planet doing _exactly_ what I told him not to do."

"This intel came from our NID informant." The runner said helpfully.

"Not the SGC?"

"No, my lord."

"Why am I not getting any information out of them directly?"

"I'm sorry my lord, I don't have an answer to that."

"Didn't expect you to, just thinking out loud. All right, you can go, make sure you grab something to eat." He said kindly.

"Yes my lord." The boy told him with a smile. King Akhan was a kind leader.

He sat and thought for a long moment. Landry was too good at plugging holes. He'd have to talk to Jack about that. He couldn't protect his people if he didn't know what was going on and apparently a _lot _had gone on. Sam had married someone else. A situation the king of Akhan found objectionable as he'd specifically offered them positions in his kingdom to avoid exactly such a situation. They could have settled down and started making ridiculously brilliant, crafty little mini Sam and Jacks. In a couple generations his planet could attract an army of geniuses. The Tollans, if they were still alive, other than the handful of isolated individuals he worked with, could kick rocks. He'd have the smartest people in the galaxy.

Looked like Jack might be the father of at least one of the boys anyway and the youngest sure looked like Charlie so probably him too. He never took Sam for the kind of girl to run around but the heart wants what the heart wants he knew all too well himself.

At any rate they seemed to be sorting things out pretty well themselves other than some loose ends that shouldn't have come loose in the first place. He'd told those idiots to leave Carter and O'Neill and Jackson alone. As long as you didn't draw their attention or cause them any trouble everything would be fine.

Jack apparently had panicked. That was the only reasonable conclusion he could come up with on this. When they went after Sam, Jack panicked as he always did when it was about her and because he hadn't known he had an ace in the hole here at the time he hadn't thought to call in the standing marker they owed each other. He'd done what he could to put out the fire on his own and done pretty well at it even if it had cost his heart.

But it looked like there would need to be a coming to Jesus conversation with a particularly shady Kentucky lawmaker before things could go back to as normal as it got for the hopefully future O'Neill's.

King Akhan stood and called an attendant "Fetch my travel clothes, would you Ryloth?"

"My lord?"

"I need to go see a man about a horse."


	28. March 3rd:

**March 3****rd****:**

"Can you drive me to Peterson in the morning before you head to the mountain?" Jack asked her over enchiladas he'd baked earlier in the day while she was at work. The boys were busy shoveling Mexican food into their faces and not paying attention to the adults.

"Sure. Washington need you? I'll let the school know so they can put the boys on the NDC bus in the afternoon." Sam said. Jack had paid for the days it was his fault she didn't have childcare. He couldn't get away from DC entirely. It meant he'd be staying the night at the house too. A topic they didn't actively discuss. He would not be sleeping on her couch in the den and they both knew it.

Jack nodded absently. "The usual Joint Chiefs nonsense. Nothing to worry about, just stuff I have to handle in person." He'd been summoned, a situation he didn't care for even slightly but he'd been told in no uncertain terms that he needed to explain at length exactly what he'd been up to playing house here with his ex-girlfriend.

Oddly enough because his Carter was brilliant, she'd managed to hack into both their private e-mails and dummy an old conversation between them about the fertility procedure. One that deeply implied he'd known about both boys almost all along but which also clearly stated out of respect for her marriage he could not be a part of their lives. Anyone who knew him well would know what a steaming load of utter crap that was but Jack was banking on the other Joint Chiefs assuming Jack's sense of duty and honor would override his feelings as it had many times in the past.

"Will you be gone long?" She asked wondering if she'd need to arrange childcare while he was gone. With her pay increase she could at least squeak that out though she was hoping to start paying down the second loan on the old house. She could let it default which meant they would garnish both their wages but Lorin had reminded her that sort of thing attracts CPS in military families and she had enough issues all things considered. …Which reminded her…

"Just a couple days. Meeting, layover, and back home. They don't really need me. They just want to make sure I didn't run away from home."

Sam chuckled, "I talked to Lorin today. She called my cell instead of the house for some reason. She suggested we have you sign some paperwork making you the boy's legal guardian until the adoption goes through."

Jack nodded thoughtfully. "All right, I'll sign it when I get it." He agreed, concerned the paperwork might not be ready until he had his plan in motion.

"Dad, what's a legal guardianship?" Georgie asked.

Jack really wasn't over the boys calling him dad all the time yet and he grinned in spite of the serious question. "It means that if something happens to your mom, the state can't make you go live with Pete or anyone else in his family as long as I'm around."

"Good." The boy said savagely.

Jack and Sam exchanged a look. Georgie had admitted he'd heard every word Pete had said about him that day on the driveway which had further confirmed for the boy that the man he'd thought was his father had never loved him. He had only ever been a pawn to the man and Georgie was pretty good at chess. He understood strategy well for his age. He was tricky like his father and brilliant like his mother and Jack felt nothing but pity for anyone who thought George James O'Neill was just a cute little kid. He'd caught the boy writing his name that way the other day and told Sam what the boy had been doing. She'd agreed that if the boys wanted his name they had every right to it no matter what happened between the two of them.

"Dad! Can you come to career day? We get lots and lots of military parents but no one has been a General before." Jake asked. "Mrs. Anders says it's ok that you aren't my real dad yet. I told her you abopsing me and Georgie because the judge said our old dad is... is… unfits! And then she asked if you were going to marry mom and I said I don't know they don't talk about it to me but I caught you kissing the other day so I think so."

Sam was turning pink and Jack was trying not to laugh when Jack's cell phone rang. He put a finger up and Jake stopped rambling. He now knew the 'work is on the phone' signal.

"O'Neill." Jack barked even though it was Daniel. Jack nodded a couple times then smiled savagely. "Good. Get it cleared with Landry. I'll be in DC for the next couple days. We'll go over the details when I get back." He said to the other man and hung up.

Sam looked at him inquiring.

"Just the usual fate of the world stuff Carter. Tell me what else you told your teacher about your mom and me, Jake." His eyes twinkled as he turned to the boy, clearly egging on the situation to traumatize Sam. He squeezed her knee under the table though, so she'd know he was only giving her a hard time because it was funny.

"Well, I told her I caught you guys kissing and she said well that doesn't always mean people will get married, some people just like each other and kiss because they are friends and I said well I think my mom likes Jack lots more than as a friend because she gets this dopey smile on her face when she thinks he's not looking and-"

Jack laughed. "Ok, I get the idea. Your mom and I care about each other very much. We always have." His eyes were on Sam, telling her that he never stopped loving her even when she wasn't his and that's why he stayed away. "But it will be a while before we talk about getting married buddy, probably not until after the adoption finalizes and only if your mom wants to marry me. She might meet a famous TV star and fall in love before that."

"Like that guy who can fix things with a chewing gum wrapper and a paperclip? Mom has a huuuggeee crush on him." Jake informed Jack.

"Oh yah that guy that looks just like Dad? I think he's married or something in real life. That would be kind of cool though or that guy from that doctor show Aunt Carol thinks is so dumb because all the medical information is wrong." Georgie added.

"This is what passes for normal dinner conversation in our house, huh?" Jack asked Sam.

"Apparently." Sam told him, her face a mixture of amusement and embarrassment.

* * *

That evening, after the boys were in bed Jack had brushed his teeth was sitting up in bed reading a report, his black framed reading glasses that Sam had found weirdly sexy for years perched on his nose. He'd noted that though they really shouldn't, when the situation arose, their habits became entirely domestic on their part without any of the odd awkwardness he'd expected with the passage of time.

Neither had closed the bathroom door during their evening rituals or left the room to change though both had covertly eyeballed the other with banked lust as they changed for the night. At one point Jack had been down to nothing but his shorts and Sam had groped his ass on her way by to brush her teeth. He'd been so surprised by her casual fondling that he'd nearly dropped his tank top he slept in when it was cold.

He didn't think he'd be needing it in a few minutes but he put it on anyway. It did show off his arm muscles nicely after all. Sam came back and got into bed. Sliding between the covers she tugged his report out of his hands, set it on the nightstand and turned off the overhead light, leaving only the glow of the nightlight she had so the kids wouldn't kill themselves if they stumbled into the room in the middle of the night after a bad dream.

"You can leave the glasses on General." She told him as she maneuvered herself over him and claimed his only slightly surprised mouth in an insistent kiss he didn't deny.

"Colonel Carter, you appear ready for your debriefing." He said after the kiss broke, both of them panting softly, his hands had a mind of their own and one was gripping her bottom tight against his crotch so she'd know exactly what her calculated assault was causing. The other was deep into her night shirt and rolling the hardened tip of her nipple between thumb and forefinger. It wouldn't have taken much more than a few nips on her neck and a gentle stroke between her legs to get her off right then and there but they had a lot to make up for so Jack took his time and brought her to the edge without letting her finish before he finally gave in to her needy little sighs and pleas and lifted her enough to enter her while she sat in his lap.

They rocked slowly together while they kissed, not in a hurry to get to their destination. Reveling in the taste of each other's skin, enjoying the sweet slow friction until he felt her tighten around him and knew she was too close to draw it out anymore. He swiped his thumb roughly over her clit no more than a dozen times before he felt the orgasm roll through her. As she came down he grabbed her hips and rocked her hard and quickly over him until his rhythm faltered and he was pulling her hard against him while he throbbed out his release inside her.

She lay panting and limp against his chest. Boneless and sated. His hands rested on her, unmoving for several long moments, he was as spent as she was. "Missed you." He said against her hair. They hadn't made love since the night of the hearing, hadn't had the reasonable opportunity to do so. It might be a while before it happened again and they were both ok with that. They knew the risk of being lovers at all. It wasn't like they hadn't talked the topic to death in the past.

"I've missed you too Jack. So much." She said softly against his neck.

Jack slid his glasses that were cockeyed on his face now anyway off and slid down against the pillows until they were both lying down. "I want this back Sam. All of it." He told her and his arms reflexively tightened on her. "I'm not letting them take you from me again." He promised. But Sam had dozed off. It was just as well. She'd have asked questions he shouldn't answer about what he planned to do and it might all be moot anyway if the other Joint Chiefs told him flat out to back off on this. Not that he would, but it would draw out his timetable further.

He rolled them on their sides, one arm under her head as he pulled her back against his chest and tucked her in tight with his arm. His hand splayed across the now soft belly that had carried both their children. "Wish I could have given you a girl too Carter." He murmured into her hair. Amused at the idea of her having to learn exactly why the boys drove him up a wall simply because they were boys some days. "I bet she'd be a silly smart ass just like her mom."

And the thing with wishes wasn't that you could make them come true but if you happened to have the particular Alteran genetic marker that gave you healing abilities if your physiology was just a bit more evolved, you could wish for things to physically happen and sometimes with enough emotion involved, make them happen. There was an unnoticed soft glow where Jack's hand rested on Sam's belly. His unreliable healing ability, following his desire, did the one thing it could do if the conditions had been otherwise right, the pH of her uterus raised slightly. A condition that would make things inhospitable for most of the male sperm if there were any to kill.

Jack fell asleep making a mental note to talk to Sam again about getting his vasectomy reversed.


	29. March 4th, 0900 AM Washington DC:

**March 4th, 0900 AM Washington DC:**

"Gentlemen. Let's bring this meeting to order. Jack, you know why we asked you to meet with us in person. This isn't a tribunal hearing. you aren't in trouble but we need to know exactly what's been going on the last eight months with you and Colonel Carter." The head of the DoD said.

Jack nodded. Sam wasn't in his CoC. No one technically was. He could advise Hank or Brian Hickerson, the base commander at Peterson and he could override their orders if he really had to, but he had no real authority over them and therefore anyone under them. If it wasn't for the threats made against Sam he could have married her years ago with zero consequence to her legally. It had been a dirty play at blackmail that had kept them apart.

Jack sat down and opened his briefcase. He snorted out what would have otherwise been a sigh and looked around the table at the men who were his equal. Some of whom he called friend as well. "As most of you are aware, Colonel Carter left the Cheyenne facility for Groom Lake approximately nine years ago to take her out of my chain of command. They had been pursuing her services for several years and we had neutralized the Goa'uld threat by that time. We thought it a fair compromise that we did not pursue a personal relationship in spite of the desire to do so until she was no longer working directly under me in some capacity." That was… mostly true.

"After a few months, General Hammond made the decision to retire and to recommend me for his previous position as a member of this advisory board. While I don't pretend to understand what level of insanity he was experiencing at the time, I accepted the position."

While a couple of the Joint Chiefs chuckled, the head of the DoD made a winding motion for Jack to get on with it.

"As some of you may have become aware, not all of our congressmen and women are honest fellows and one in particular chose that time to insinuate that the military, and in particular the SGC would not be receiving their budgetary needs should I continue to court Colonel Carter. As I had already picked out a ring and was looking at catering services I was a tad… put out." Jack frowned. "I explained to said person that I had no interest in his manipulative tactics and didn't want this job anyway so he could shove his threats where the sun doesn't shine, I'd quit before I let him use me in that way." Jack smiled but it was a hard smiled. "Besides, it's pretty cold to make a man pick between his country and the woman he's in love with." There. He'd said it.

"It was at that point that our… esteemed… lawmaker chose to explain that even if I left my post he would torpedo any advancement on her part if I didn't 'play ball'." Jack looked around the table to gauge everyone's reactions but each of his collogues was as good at maintaining an expressionless face as he was.

"So, clearly in a bid to protect her from the situation, I ended my romantic relationship with Colonel Carter at that time. Life went on, Carter went back to her slimy snake in the grass ex-fiancé and had a couple kids. The… end." Jack raised an eyebrow. "Or is it?" He turned his head slightly sideways at everyone.

"About three years after we ended things to avoid problems she was unaware of at the time, I received an e-mail from her private address requesting my help with a situation. It seems unknown to him, her slimy snake in the grass at the time husband was shooting blanks. She was apparently pregnant when we broke things off but because she was only a couple days along at the time, she didn't know it wasn't his kid until she tried to have a second child and had his swimmers checked out without his knowledge. Several years ago after an unfortunate," he shook his head at the memory, "and headache inducing incident, our colleagues, the Asgard, the little grey guys who used to watch our butts for us until we could do it ourselves, recommended that I make a deposit in ye ol' sperm bank in the unfortunate event of my demise. They were very interested in my unique genetics and thought it might be best if I passed them on at some point. Yet another reason, Carter and I were… seeing each other." He looked thoughtful.

"Anyway, several as in all of my team were effectively orphans in the world. Dr. Jackson literally, then Major Carter logistically as her father was no longer with us on Earth and Teal'c because well, he's not from 'round these parts." He nodded as if to himself. "That in mind, each of us had one of the others listed as next of kin knowing the others would be notified, etcetera. We also had Durable Power of Attorney and Health Care Proxy forms for each other as well. I was on everyone's and Carter was mine. I couldn't really trust Danny with it. He'd mean well but then FUBAR something."

"When things ended with Carter and I, I never bothered to take her off my paperwork as I saw no real reason to. Even angry at me, she'd still pull the plug if I asked her to. Might do it out of spite, but she'd have done it." His expression had gone back to thoughtful. "So when she came to me and asked if she could use the paperwork to start the process to use my frozen, ah, stuff, I green lit the idea with the admonishment that if she was going to pass this kid off as her husband's, I can't be part of its life. I told her to mail me the paperwork and I'd sign it."

"You just signed off on this Jack? Why?"

"Oh I knew it might bite me in the ass some day but it was Carter. I've done crazier things for her in the past. This was pretty mild compared to getting a snake in the head and I got a lot shittier of a deal out of that trip I'll tell yah." Much, much crazier he decided. "Everything went swimmingly well, Carter had a baby, the snake was none the wiser and life went on or so I believed. About five years later I get a call from the man who would have been my brother-in-law had his snaky friend not married my girlfriend." Jack's eyes glittered. "Apparently he'd been running around on our Colonel in his spare time for quite a while. Carter caught him in the act and threw him out. They got divorced… the… end." He trailed off.

"Or so you thought." One of the other men suggested.

Jack put up a finger. "Yes, or so I thought. Until I received a phone call that her slimy ex has left her underwater on a home loan and not been paying his child support or taking care of his kids in any way whatsoever. I later found out he'd also taken out a second mortgage on the house, forged her signature that we haven't been able to prove yet and defaulted on it, probably intentionally in an attempt to force her to return to him or to force her to take up base housing and surrender the kids he didn't care about to him. Mostly the latter given what he told his attorney."

"Mark and I decided enough was enough. Mark doesn't know either boy is mine and until recently the ex only suspected Georgie is my boy and had no idea about Jake's parentage. Both of us are dark blond or were, brown eyes, about the same height. It would have been a while until he noticed how much the older boy looks like me and had no frame of reference that the younger boy looks like his older brother Charlie at the same age." His voice had gone soft at the mention of his oldest child.

"I initially went with the offer of free childcare a couple hours a day so she could work longer hours. The slimy ex had convinced her to trim back her hours to next to nothing and she wasn't making enough to cover the bills. That snowballed into renting her my old house that was otherwise sitting empty as she's considered a bad investment now. I've been sleeping on base." Jack quirked a smile. "Even if those weren't my boys, I wouldn't have let their father do that to her. He had every chance to co-parent and chose to force her into poverty instead. It was the least I could do."

"Do the boys know you are their father?"

"The oldest does now but he knows not to say anything. Carter succeeded in having her ex-husband's parental rights severed and I applied to formally adopt both boys the same day. Our attorney suggested I apply for legal guardianship until the adoption goes through and is getting that ready probably as we speak. I'll sign it when I get home. I just want to tell you, even if neither of those boys were biologically mine, I'd be doing exactly what I'm doing right now."

"We know Jack. Your past history with guardianship is noted with regards to Cassandra Frasier and Jon O'Neill. No one at this table questions your commitment to the welfare of children."

"So is that all guys?"

"We do need to know how you intend to proceed Jack."

"Well, that's going to depend on some things. I'd really like to stick it to the rat bastard that ruined my life. Barring that, I'm retiring for good when the adoptions go through. Probably recommend Landry or Hickerson for the position. I know I could marry her now but I'd like to see her get up a couple more rungs before I do so. She deserves to make General and I can keep things casual for a while. Might get a little awkward though if I get her in as head of SGC and I'm crashing on the officers' lounge couch."

There were chuckles from the other men.

"The reason we brought you in was because her recent actions have been recommended for review. We wanted your side of things first. Given your account of events, we'll move for the tribunal to dismiss any case they have against her should it come to that but not until you neutralize the problem. We don't want to tip our hands in this matter as we agree, this was an inappropriate abuse of power and had we known your reasons for balking at the time, would have exposed the situation for what it was."

"Ah, that just would have dragged Carter's name through the mud. I couldn't put her through that."

"We understand. Go ahead and head back to Colorado. I'm sure you have work to do. And Jack?"

"Yah?"

"Requisition some on base staff. Your reports are getting behind again."

"D'oh"


	30. March 6th:

Jack got one of the motor pool kids to drive him from Peterson to the Cheyenne facility. He had put his blues back on for the standby flight to Denver then taken a commuter job to Peterson. He's wanted to talk to Brian about the command of the Hammond anyway and he was already wearing his monkey suit.

The nice thing about being in uniform is you really very consistently got a seat flying standby. Added bonus every kid on the flight had wanted to come by and ask him questions. As the only thing Jack loved more than dogs were kids, he had a blast mean mugging them then winking in amusement as they walked by.

So after his chat with the perennially eclectic General Hickerson and a couple IOA flunkies that he played nice with because he didn't want to irk Dick Woolsey after his help with that little city ship thing, he headed back for the SGC. It was a nice day for a drive after all and Jack was going home to his kids, at least for a couple days he hoped. He'd have liked it even more if he'd been able to come home to his wife and his kids but he was working on that.

"Happy to be going home sir?" The young airman asked him.

"I am. Missed my kids." Jack told the kid that couldn't be a day over twenty.

"When I was a kid sir, my dad would come home in his blues and I don't know who was more excited, him or my little sister and me. There was something about dad coming in with that grin of his."

Jack chuckled. "What rank was he?"

"Captain sir, he was a pilot." The kid said over the rumble of the vehicle.

"Being a dad is one of the greatest things in the world son."

"My dad used to say the same thing sir. Then my sister and I became teenagers and all his hair fell out."

Jack laughed outright. "Sounds about right airman." He said thinking of Cassie.

* * *

A little over half an hour later Jack was wandering through the enormous door of NORAD at the top of the Cheyenne facility. Some jokester had put an SG placard on a supply closet in the hallway to the elevator banks. A nod to Martin's show a few years back. Jack had heard Marty was trying to revive a new series but the studio was balking because it was a budget nightmare.

The motor pool kid had said his goodbyes at the gate and Jack was signing in, noting all of SG-1 was on staff and his kids were signed into the daycare. He ought to drop by there first before he headed down. The facility head had been thrilled by Jack's admission the last time he was picking them up that he'd started adoption proceedings. She'd been a little concerned by the boys shouting 'Dad' instead of 'Jack' at him as they had before.

"Did Carter leave any instructions Genie?" He asked the sweet tempered NDC head who was in on the weekends so her people could get much needed rest. It was hit or miss if they would be empty or packed those days."

"Nothing specific General. I do have a question though?"

"What's that?"

"Well, the boys have insisted I use your last name when addressing them rather than their birth father's. I opted to just avoid either for the time being." She was whispering to him so the boys who were distracted by a TV show at the moment, "But I didn't know if you or Colonel Carter had given them permission to do so."

Jack grinned a little. "Carter had his parental rights severed. He wasn't paying his child support and hadn't called or seen them in several months. It will take a while before the adoption goes through so Carter is getting me legal guardian papers in case something unfortunate happens to her in the meantime. She wants to keep the kids with the family they know loves them. I told them if it was ok with their mom they could legally change their names to mine. Their father hasn't been the most stellar parent and they want nothing to do with him."

"I'm so sorry sir, those poor boys. They rarely came in when Colonel Carter was married but I do notice they seem happier overall now."

"That's good to hear. Kids don't deserve to be in the middle of their parent's fights."

"I agree sir. I'll keep them entertained here until you or Colonel Carter comes to pick them up. Make sure I get a copy of the guardianship paperwork for my files please."

"Yes ma'am" He said to the kindly woman. "You two be good for Major Nelson, all right?" He admonished the boys.

"Yes sir." Came the absent replies, their father already forgotten for the far more interesting yellow talking sponge.

* * *

"All right Daniel, lay it on me." Jack told his oldest friend. A man he considered more brother than friend. Jack had changed into base uniform. His blues were hanging in a locker.

"All right, so I couldn't figure out how to handle this without tipping off our shady friend so I spent a couple days figuring out who might be able to pull that off. Then I remembered Richard Woolsey was head of field operations at IOA since his return from Atlantis."

"I take it I owe him a favor now then?"

Daniel slid a pile of papers for Jack to look at. "Not according to Woolsey. Apparently he was very interested in digging into the situation once his people discovered what our little turtle has been up to. Especially after I told him how he'd been the one responsible for your relationship issues. Apparently he was a big fan of your situation and had been one of the loudest voices in support of your appointment to HWC knowing it would effectively eliminate any lingering issues for you romantically."

"You would think he had something better to do than play matchmaker." Jack said.

"Well be glad he didn't because if he had, he wouldn't have been nearly as interested in digging up crap on a member of congress. The problem is, he can't directly confront the situation and if he does it won't solve your problem so you still need your contingency plan to pull this off unless you want to take your chances with the next election."

"Rats." Jack said reading the IOA preliminary findings.

"Agreed."

"No, they're all a bunch of rats. Almost as bad as snakes."

Daniel snorted in amused agreement. "So I take it we need to sneak off then?"

"Without Carter catching us, or we're all doomed." Jack agreed.

"Ok, well, I'll go grab Teal'c and gear up while you play dodgem with your wife." Daniel said companionably.

"That's not funny Daniel."

"It is to meeee…." Daniel's voice floated back from the hall.

"It's not _that_ funny" Jack muttered as he left to go find Landry.

* * *

"So Woolsey's people have a line on the guy but they can't go after him directly yet until I deal with this other situation."

"Jack, he belongs in a penitentiary."

"No argument there. Talk about double dipping. I bet he's skimming too considering he's flooding his state with crime with one hand and beefing up police power to go after whoever he wants with the other."

"Slimy bastard. He taught you how to treat him Jack."

"That's pretty much what the head of DoD said a couple days ago." Jack admitted.

Hank looked thoughtful and tapped a pen on his desk. "All right." He said after a long moment. "If you think this is the solution you've got Daniel and Teal'c for a couple days but then I want them back Earthside. What do you want me to tell Sam?"

Jack hadn't thought of it. "I was hoping you would just keep her distracted until we left Hank."

"Jack. Are you trying to kill me here?"

Jack grinned. "Tell her I had to go powder my nose."

"I'm starting to understand why George lost all his hair."

Jack gave him an innocent look which earned him a frown and a Sam Carter worthy eye-roll. "You owe me Jack."

* * *

Jack's next stop was the infirmary for a pre-mission physical that Hank insisted on considering he was going offworld. Teal'c and Daniel joined him for their checkups shortly after. After they cleared out, Jack snagged Carol's sleeve.

"Did you need something General?"

"How hard is it to reverse a vasectomy?"

"Not very. Having second thoughts sir?"

"Well, at the time, I wasn't with the person I wanted to have kids with. Then I wasn't with anyone."

Carolyn patted his hand. "If you want it done here for privacy reasons sir, I can arrange it."

He looked at her. "I might." He admitted.

"Have a good mission sir." She said with a smile and moved on to her next patient.

"What was that about?" Daniel asked him as Jack pulled his jacket back on.

"I'll tell yah later if this screwball idea of mine pans out Danny boy."

"Jack."

"Daniel."

"It wasn't your fault Charlie was an only child."

"I was gone too much, in a way it was, but it wasn't because of equipment failure if that's what you mean."

"Does Sam want another baby?"

"Possibly and if she does, I'd like to give her that option sooner than later."

"Makes sense and if she doesn't?"

"Then I go back to being extra careful like." Jack said flippantly as he walked past.

Daniel stared at Jack's back in shock. Did that mean Sam and Jack had been? How the hell had he not caught on to that?

"Sir! May I speak to you a moment alone?" Sam called as she finally caught up to him. He'd clearly been sneaking around base the last couple hours and she'd caught him as he was about to knock on Teal'c's quarters.

"Colonel Carter, it's good to see you." He said with a mild tone and expression.

She gave him such a cut the crap look that he was taken aback and wanted to kiss her right then and there. _THERE_ was his Carter.

Jack knocked on Teal'c's door politely. "T, we've got a go." He'd changed into a set of field BDUs and tac vest so it was pretty obvious he was going out on a mission.

Part of Sam really wanted to admire how he looked dressed for battle. Muscle hard and eyes flinty. She wasn't about to lie, it did it for her, always had. "Sir." Her eyes narrowed.

Teal'c opened his door. "O'Neill. Colonel Carter." He said with a nod and a smile for Sam.

"Landry gave us a green light. Go gear up. I need to talk to Carter for a moment."

"My quarters are at your disposal." He told them and left.

Jack nudged Sam inside and closed the door.

Before Sam could round on him for sneaking around base he'd maneuvered her against the door and claimed her mouth hungrily. When he came up for air, his eyes were heavy lidded and his breath ragged. "Before you chew my ass out Carter, I love you."

Sam looked up at him, eyes having gone from heavy lidded to wide. "Quit trying to change the subject sir."

"I'm 'sir' again. Ouch."

"Where are you going and why are you only taking Daniel and Teal'c?"

"I need some help solving a problem and the only guy who can pull it off is Maybourne."

"Harry? That double crossing sex addict?"

"I know, I know, but he's got the right kind of shady con-men in his corner that can plug this problem once and for all."

She frowned and poked him in the chest with her finger. "You have two little boys who are going to be very put out if you damage yourself O'Neill. Don't do any of your usual level of crazy." She ordered him.

He captured her finger, brought her hand up to his face and kissed the fingertip that had pointed at him so hard she'd shoved him. "I'm doing this for them Carter. They deserve a family. A _whole_ family."

"Jack." She said softly, her eyes searching his.

"Marry me Sam."

"Right now?"

He laughed. "No, after I solve my little personality clash with a dumb hillbilly."

She giggled.

"Stop giggling Carter, I pitch a tent every time you do it."

"_That's_ why?" She asked him incredulously. "For years I thought it was because you thought it sounded unprofessional."

He hummed and tugged her forward so they were hip to hip. "That is definitely not my sidearm Carter."

Sam snickered. "I didn't think it was the first time either sir."

"Smart ass."

"Yes sir."

"Stop it."

"On your orders sir."

"Dammit Carter."

* * *

Half an hour later Sam sat in the control room and watched half her team gate out.

"You ok with this?" Cam asked.

"Have you ever tried to talk him out of anything Cam?"

"Can't say I have Sam."

"Well don't waste the effort. You may as well try to alter time and speed up the harvest."

"Or teleport you off this rock?"

Sam waved at the Stargate. "That one we have covered."


	31. Late afternoon that same day:

**Late afternoon that same day:**

"Well, at least he's easy to find." Daniel said as the drone sent feedback to the handheld computer sending them live video.

"Well, that's new." Jack said in interest. The drone had cleared the trees and behind the village was now a delicate and slightly fanciful castle punctuated by spires.

"It looks like Disney Land." Daniel said laughing.

"The fortifications are inadequate to an assault." Teal'c noted.

Jack shook his head ruefully. "Well, I've officially seen it all."

Daniel tilted his head and nodded. Jack probably had now.

"I always knew the military was a Mickey Mouse operation. Come on kids. Let's go find Uncle Walt."

"I believe we are looking for Harry Maybourne not Walt Disney, O'Neill."

* * *

Harry's ranger parties spotted them before they reached the village. Sam had warned him they might before he'd left. "Hold strangers." The tall woman whose hair was now threaded with silver said to them. "General O'Neill?"

"One and the same." Jack said tightly.

"We met once before, years ago. How is Colonel Carter?" She asked him of his previous second.

"That's what I need to see your king about."

"I will take you to the castle." Her hands signaled the other rangers in the party and they fell in behind her and Jack as an honor guard.

Jack had to chuckle. It reminded him of Sam doing so at the park with the boys. Had probably been doing it unconsciously since they were toddlers. Harry would of course teach his people how to communicate silently. He noted that a high percentage of the hunters were women. Well over half. Harry was a libertine but he was no sexist. It didn't matter what gender you were as long as you were competent in Harry's eyes.

It was a short walk to the village and they soon found themselves at the foot of a wood drawbridge to a modestly large castle. They had dug a moat and Harry had filled it with Koi. Jack just shook his head.

"King Arkhan had them imported from your world. He says they are good luck. They are also delicious but we are only invited to eat them on special occasions." His forward said with a smile as she waved them past the posted liveried guards and into the castle.

Daniel looked around in interest. "Jack, this is really interesting. If this catches on here, the entire planet will pick it up as a way of looking at architecture and it could potentially influence their way of designing buildings for hundreds of years."

"Good thing he went with Walt instead of green shag carpet on the walls then." Jack quipped.

"Why would one make one's house appear as a gilly suit?" Teal'c wondered.

"I asked my aunt that as a kid and she told me it was fashionable." Jack replied.

"It sounds hideous." Teal'c intoned and Jack gave him a grimly amused smile for an answer.

"Mistress Garan, we saw your party approach and prepared a meal for you. Queen Morina and the heir will join you and our esteemed guests shortly."

"Thank you Galhandra." She told the guard.

Daniel was noting that Garen was much more friendly towards them this time. Perhaps because she'd rather liked Sam once they got to know each other. Sam did have that effect on others pretty often. "Garan, it's very nice that there's been food prepared, I'm sure Jack is hungry, he usually is, but we really need to speak to your king. It's kind of urgent."

"All will be revealed, Daniel Jackson of the Tau'ri." She told them in a serious and slightly officious voice and proceeded to lead them through the halls of the castle until they came to a brightly lit great hall filled with long tables and a dais at one end. "Please, sit." She invited them but it was much more an order and she gave them pointed looks. Once Jack, Daniel and Teal'c were seated, she clapped her hands and motioned for the servants to ring out the meal.

"We are a simple people as you know, lunch will be soup and bread followed by fruit and cake if you like." She explained, not wanting them to expect something better suited to their ranks both among her people and their own.

"Soup is fine Garen." Daniel said, pointedly saying the woman's name in case Jack happened to have forgotten it over the years.

Jack looked like he was considering it then nodded. "Soup sounds great." He said in his 'I really don't care but I was raised to be polite' voice.

A stately woman entered the room followed by a girl of about ten or so. "Mayor Garen, I see you cannot resist leading the sentries still." The woman said with humor.

Garen looked heavenward. "Only when the Tau'ri appear, my queen." She said with amusement.

"Was this predicted too? Daniel asked the woman.

"No. After your people left, King Arkhan formulated a plan to keep an eye on the goings on of the galaxy, including your own world."

"Father was most put out that you chose to not engage his services nine years ago, goodfather O'Neill." The girl said.

Jack looked at her. "And you are?" He waved a hand with objective interest but his expression was kind.

"My apologies Goodfather, I am Samantha, first of King Arkhan's children, and the future queen." She said with a polite curtsey.

"He named you after Sam?" Daniel said.

"Our Sam?" Jack asked, clearly mulling that over.

"Is it not fitting on your world to name one's progeny after those you admire?" Queen Morina asked Daniel.

"Er, well, yes. Yes it is." Daniel replied a little bemused. "Queen Samantha." He said thoughtfully.

"It does have a nice_ ring_ to it doesn't it Danny?" Jack asked with a grin as he sipped the water that had been placed before him.

"It does indeed O'Neill." Teal'c agreed, clearly amused enough to be telling Sam of this development later.

"Father has asked that you remain here and rest until he is able to meet with you." Samantha told them.

"Where is the good King Arkhan?" Jack asked flippantly.

"I was instructed to inform you that he will meet you on.. let's see… Alpha Site I believe he said, in two days time."

"Why in two days time?"

"He said he needed to collect something you would need. Something about… easier than figuring out the dog is the password. He said you would know what that meant." She explained.

"Does that make sense to you Jack?"

"Yah. Unfortunately. Looks like we'll have to pull a similar maneuver as the deal with Hammond."

"The deal with Hammond?" Daniel looked confused.

"When Kinsey forced Hammond to step down, Harry and I blackmailed Kinsey into getting George's job back with the SGC."

"You blackmailed a senator?"

"I've done worse Danny."

"True." Daniel admitted.

"King Arkhan assured us that he need only acquire the one item, then he would return with you to Earth to resolve the issue you came to discuss with him." Garen assured them. "I trust you to return our king to us General?"

"No worries, we just want to borrow him Garen." He said, patting the woman companionably on her shoulder. They were a lot alike really. Unswerving loyalty, an itch to remain active in spite of being forced into flying a desk. Attractive brown eyes.

Garen gave him the hairy eyeball and Jack smirked. It wasn't his fault the Tok'ra had been useless last time. He took out the system lord for them. It turned out ok.

"General O'Neill, why did you not take the positions King Arkhan offered both you and Colonel Carter when you saved our world from Lord Ares a decade ago?" Garen asked them. King Arkhan had filled her in on the situation over the last few years before he'd taken his leave and she simply could not understand how a pair so well matched as the king described them as to fall apart in such a way.

"Garen, it wouldn't have been right of me to take your job. This is _your_ home. We still had a war to win back then."

"And after?"

Jack shrugged. "That's part of why I'm here now. They just would have dragged our sorry butts back if we'd taken him up on his offer. What good would that have done?"

"My people would have protected you." She insisted.

Jack smiled at her kindly. She was a good person, loyal and kind-hearted. "I know you would have tried but it wouldn't have been right to put you in that kind of danger. We don't do that. I'm fixing things now. That's the important part."

She nodded, but her eyes still narrowed. "See that you do." She finally said.

"Yes ma'am." Jack said and gave her a jaunty salute.

She smiled a little then. "So, King Arkhan tells me you have two sons now?"

"Yes. Tell us about your children Goodfather." Samantha said enthusiastically as she sat at the table and accepted a bowl of thick rich soup herself.

"Well, the oldest, he's eight, his name is Georgie, Sam named him after her own godfather who was our base commander for a very long time, that's a lot like what Garen here does. His little brother is named Jacob after his grandfather but we all call him Jake."

Jack continued on through the meal telling them about the boys and even some of Sam's experiences without invading her privacy too much.


	32. 0800 March 7:

Sam stood with Vala and Cam, geared up for a mission. "It feels weird only the three of us. Almost as weird as it did when Jack was promoted to General." She admitted.

"Well it's just a jaunty hop and a skip Sam. If the three of us can't handle this one on our own without Jackson and Teal'c, I'm a little worried about the quality of our team as a whole." Cam drawled.

Sam bit her lip. It wasn't that. She felt she should stay. Couldn't put a finger on it, just a gut feeling that things would change somehow after she got back and she wasn't honestly sure they were changes she'd be pleased with.

"SG-1, you have a go." Landry told them over the PA.

"All right people, let's move out." Cam said and waved them both through the now activated gate.

* * *

Later that evening Sam and Vala were laying in their tent. Cam had opted to take first watch but neither woman was tired. It had only been a survey mission after all, Sam was taking soil samples and Vala had run the drone around to see if there was any sign of inhabitants further away from the Gate. So far neither woman had found diddly squat.

"I'm so bored Sam." Vala groaned.

Sam chuckled. "I'm not sure we'd enjoy the alternative."

"Well, this is dull. I think I'm so used to being shot at that I don't know what to do with myself when I'm not." Vala admitted.

"Plus there's nothing to steal." Sam said absently.

"I'll have you know, I haven't stolen anything in…" She counted on her fingers, paused, retracted one and held up the three remaining ones. "Three months. That has got to be some kind of record." She said triumphantly.

"The last thing you stole was from my lab." Sam reminded her dryly.

"I put it back." Vala said defensively. "Besides, you wouldn't have even known if I hadn't told you."

Sam gave Vala the side eye in the dim light.

"Speaking of which, what is Jack up to anyway? You didn't seem very pleased with him when he left."

"He has some hair brained idea that Maybourne can help him out somehow."

"Maybourne... Maybourne... that shady fellow who Daniel says can't be trusted further than he can be thrown?" Vala asked surprised.

"That's the one." Sam said, tiredly.

"Why does he think _that_?!"

Sam shrugged then sighed.

"Oh well, on to happier topics. What's this I hear about our dear General considering getting his knackers buttoned back up." She asked Sam enthusiastically.

Sam for all her years actually blushed.

"Shhh…" She pointed at the flap. "He'll hear."

"He has a name and he can hear you!" Cam called through the night.

Vala snickered. "We weren't talking about you darling!"

"Sure you weren't." Cam said back and went back to ignoring them. Not believing her for even a minute.

"He put it out there as an option. I mean, I'd love to have another baby with him but it will probably be a couple years before we can even get married if we decide to go that route and I'd prefer if we have another baby that we be living under the same roof."

"Well you don't have to be married for_ that_ darling." Vala said quietly with a laugh. "I dare say getting married just because of a baby was what got you into this mess."

"Don't remind me." Sam said and flopped back on her pillow to stare up at the roof of the tent.

"I'm only teasing. You know he loves you more than anything in the universe other than those boys. I think you were knocked out of contention after he laid eyes on them."

"He does love those boys. Vala, he would have even if they hadn't been his."

Valla nodded thoughtfully in the dark. Sam was right. Jack was the kind of man that didn't confine his love for kids to only the product of his own loins.

From outside the tent they heard Cam exclaim, "Wait, Georgie and Jake are _both_ Jack's kids?!"

Sam and Vala looked at each other and broke out into peals of laughter. "Poor Cam, last one to know."

"Everyone but me knew? _Everyone_?!" Cam exclaimed, perturbed.

* * *

Meanwhile in Hank Landry's office, he sat with his fingers jammed into his eyeballs to stave off the incredible headache that was coming on.

"You don't seem to understand the situation Captain. Colonel Carter isn't currently _available_ to be arrested for this nonsense."

"Then have her recalled General."

"I will not compromise an operation based on a baseless accusation with no supporting evidence." It didn't matter how trivial their mission was. He wasn't going to call her back in over a frat regs violation he couldn't figure they could even have committed seeing as Jack had no chain of command whatsoever and had not since becoming head of Homeworld Security which, like heading up the department of Defense, was a Joint Chiefs position and therefore outside the chain of command entirely. Hank didn't have to do a damn thing Jack told him to do nor did any of his people. Sam could cheerfully tell him to go to hell sir to his face and Jack couldn't do a damned thing about it.

"These accusations come from a member of Congress."

"And don't you find it a bit odd that the congressional elect of Kentucky has any idea what an Air Force Colonel in Colorado is doing with an unmarried man I might add? Look Captain Smith, I understand you are just following the tribunal's orders and they have to take every accusation seriously as such… but I know my people and I've known General O'Neill for decades and I assure you nothing will come of this accusation."

"You have no way of knowing that General Landry."

"Don't I? At the worst Colonel Carter has been accused of cheating on her spouse who is not military with an unmarried man who is outside the purview of chain of command entirely. There's nothing here Captain, and therefore I will not abort the mission to recall her or her team and when she _does_ return she will remain at the SGC or under house arrest.

"She's a single parent. The parental rights of her children's father have been revoked and for very good reason. Their guardianship paperwork hasn't been signed off on yet because the man you are accusing of being her lover who intends to adopt her children is also on a mission and unavailable. The only options I will entertain her being remanded to custody are confinement to a VIP suite with them or house arrest. She is currently their only adult guardian and General O'Neill would skin me alive personally if I even considered handing those boys over to their former father who forged her name to put a second mortgage on the home she had with her boys to force her to release them to him in spite of him never showing up for scheduled visitation or paying his child support.

"I will not let their father use them as pawns while your idiot accuser worries about another man's love life." Landry said in a huff. "We both know that unless she's guilty of something egregious, the charge won't stand, especially as the stated reason for Colonel Carter's divorce was her spouse cheating. It seems theirs plenty of that to go around and I've always thought it best not to accuse someone of something they have evidence of you doing too."

"But it's not her ex-husband making the claim sir."

"Isn't it? How do you think our congressional friend got his information? ESP?"

The captain didn't have an answer for that. "Please inform me when Colonel Carter returns to base General."

"You're dismissed Captain." Landry told him without agreeing to anything at all.


	33. March 8th:

Jack walked through the Gate on Alpha Base and pulled his CBC off and beat it on his leg before jamming it back on his head. He wasn't sure what Harry's game was, making him cool his jets overnight in that silly confection of a castle he'd had built but he'd left at first light after thanking his diminutive hostess and her staff. Alpha Base was on a different time zone so they left in the morning and arrived late afternoon at Alpha. If Jack hadn't been so used to that sort of thing from past experience it would have been downright disconcerting.

Lou met him at the gate. "Wasn't expecting you Jack, until your interesting friend showed up that is."

"Where is that greasy skeezer anyway?" Jack asked, annoyed enough to pop out a childhood colloquialism.

"Around somewhere." Lou Ferettii shrugged.

"I hope you nailed everything down Lou. He's as bad as Vala."

Lou cringed. Vala had to be watched extremely carefully on base not to swipe things. "Nice time to tell me Jack."

"You read his file." Jack said, with a look of confused concern on his face.

"You tend to exaggerate a little Jack. I thought you were trying to be funny."

Daniel looked at Jack and rolled his eyes.

Harry came out from behind one of the tents, dressed in a black non-descript earth style outfit. "I hear you were looking for me Jack."

* * *

Sam, Vala, and Cam walked through the puddle into the disembarkation room and started handing their unused as it had been unrequited ordinance to the arms master. The planet had been a bust but it had to be checked out and a short handed team was a good choice for a cake mission.

"I still can't believe you guys didn't tell me. Sam. We've been friends for years." Cam was complaining to them.

"Not the time Cam." Sam told him. Her eyes narrowed. This wasn't common knowledge and until she and Jack had settled a lot of details it wasn't going to be either.

The three of them walked out on their way to the infirmary. "Well you had better tell me what's been going on soon or I'm going to start telling Jack that- "

"Colonel Samantha Carter Shanahan?" the Captain had taken the time to walk up to Sam in the halls as he didn't have authorization or clearance to be in the Gate room. He was flanked by a pair of SPs.

Sam gave them a wary look. "I'd appreciate if you dropped my ex-husband's name off that as I am." She sighed. "Yes?"

"By the authority of the military tribunal I am authorized to remand you to custody. I'm sure you would rather have your list of charges read to you in private, ma'am." He told her.

"What's going on?" Sam asked, clearly confused. Hank had managed to reach the group by then.

"Come with us, Sam, and I'll explain it. I've made it clear that you are not to be put in the brig." Hank told her with a withering look to the captain.

"Sir, wait, I'm being arrested? What about my kids?" Time wise they were at school but she couldn't leave them in NDC indefinitely and Jack hadn't signed the guardianship paperwork yet either as he'd left before Lorin had been able to get it to her.

"It's all right Sam, we'll get this sorted out. I'm coming with you and I've ordered up someone from JAG too."

Sam sighed heavily. "Yes sir." She said meekly and followed Landry to the elevator. The SPs at least had given her the dignity of not putting her in cuffs or reading off the list of transgressions in front of half the base. She wondered how many of them they had on her.

She had her own list of course that she thought about as she walked. Fraternizing with a superior officer, they broke that reg long before they broke that reg but they broke that reg anyway… more than once, not very often but there had been bad missions that ended in too much liquor and not enough self preservation. She'd married a man under false pretenses, carrying another man's child, a superior officer's child at that. Then she'd falsified medical records and forged another officer's name to do so and further mislead her former spouse. While Jack didn't have a chain of command he was a superior officer and she'd gone right back to bedding him with aplomb. Oh and they had lied to her ex-husband about the events of the medical records _and_ she'd falsified electronic records to cover her tracks and convinced a superior officer to be a co-conspirator in her crime after the fact.

Honestly at this point, Vala ought to be extremely proud of her. She'd become an opportunistic criminal to save her own ass. I am officially fucked she thought and mentally laughed at herself for her internal voice sounding suspiciously like Jack's.

They lead her to one of the VIP suites and Sam started to ask General Landry about it when he gave her a short shake of his head. Sam closed her eyes slowly, acknowledging the message. 'I'll tell you when the goon is gone.'

Sam really didn't even listen when the captain read off the list of charges which had been shorter than she expected and mostly fell under frat reg nonsense and cheating on her husband. She laughed at the irony after he left. They never got caught when it was a violation and now she was being judged for giving a cheating bastard the child he'd said he wanted but couldn't make himself.

Sam felt she was going to laugh like a loon the first time some silly girl accused her ex-husband of getting her pregnant. It would serve him right.

"Now Sam, I know all these charges are utter crap. Jack is a Joint Chief; he doesn't have any authority over you or anyone else at this facility. At best that falls under inappropriate behavior with a superior officer and that's only frowned upon not a regulations violation. As for the rest, I don't know why they think you were running around on Pete. We all know it was the other way around. A DNA test will clear this up." His tone was that as her friend rather than her CO at the moment.

"No it won't." Sam said with a shake of her head and a disconcerting laugh.

"Sam?"

"Jake is Jack's biological son Hank. I don't know how they found that out but he is."

He looked at her a long moment. "Sam, I need you to be honest with me or I can't help you fix this. Were you having an affair with Jack while you were married to Pete?"

Sam snorted. Briefly she considered telling Hank the actual truth but it would serve no purpose and she couldn't make him lie on the stand for her. "The day of my wedding Jack left my life and I didn't see or hear from him again for most of nine years Hank. When I was struggling with conception and discovered Georgie had to be Jack's son because Pete was infertile, we exchanged a couple of e-mails. I knew he had a sample at the local sperm bank and I stupidly thought I was in a happy marriage that I didn't want to blow up with the revelation that his son was another man's child.

"I didn't talk to him after he agreed to sign the fertility agreement paperwork. Pete didn't know he was infertile at the time; probably still doesn't believe he is. I was pregnant when I came home and didn't know. Pete pressured me into sex the first night and I just assumed it was his by the timing. It didn't occur to me until later when I tried to get pregnant again that Georgie might not be Pete's.

"No, that's not true, lots of times I very much hoped he wasn't but I didn't check because I didn't want to know for sure as if he wasn't, I'd been keeping Jack from his son to save my own ass." She admitted.

"I'm sure you felt you were doing the right thing at the time Sam."

"I did but that's no excuse. Just because he didn't want to be with me didn't mean I didn't know how he'd feel about his children. It was unfair and I don't understand why he's forgiven me for it honestly."

"That's something you will have to talk to him about Sam. I don't have the answers to that question."

Sam nodded solemnly. "After he agreed to sign off on the procedure he told me out of respect for my marriage that he couldn't, wouldn't be part of their lives. It must have killed him inside letting another man raise his kids, them never knowing how loved they were all along."

"They know now. That's the important part."

"I suppose so. He could have done what I deserved which was demand a paternity test and demand custody."

"He'd never hurt you that way. He knew what he was getting in to and he didn't know Pete was a terrible parent, he just wanted you to be happy, and if giving you the kids your husband couldn't was the answer to that, well, then that was the answer."

"Anyway we didn't talk again after that until recently when it got back to him that I was struggling to hold on to the house. I guess he figured he couldn't say anything but he didn't want his kids to be homeless either." What an utter liar I've become, she thought absently.

"I never cheated on Pete. I did lie to him about the paternity of his kids, neither of which was conceived by having an affair. I can prove that. I have the fertility clinic paperwork with Jack's signature on it." Sam bit her lip.

"I believe you. Sam, I will do everything in my power to mitigate this nonsense for you. Even if you had run around on him you have proof he was doing so himself. Two wrongs don't make a right but they sure don't make a left either. He had no business accusing you of his own behavior."

Sam sighed. She hadn't had to cheat. She emotionally checked out from the start and never should have married Pete in the first place.

"I'll let the school know to put the kids on the AFB bus tonight. They can stay here with you. I can't let you back into your lab but at least I can have your laptop and whatever files you want so you can continue working." He told her.

"Thank you Hank."

"Part of that no one gets left behind stuff includes no one gets railroaded by a petty ex Sam." And then he left.


	34. March 9th:

Jack came through the gate with Harry, Daniel and Teal'c in tow. Hank was unusual to form, waiting for him at the base of the platform.

Jack tilted his had thoughtfully. "Problem?"

"Bit of one. Yup. Come with me Jack, this will only take a few minutes. The rest of you go to the briefing room. We'll meet you there in a minute."

Warning bells went off in Jack's head. Big honkin blaring claxons bellowing **warning!** **Warning! Danger Jack O'Neill DANGER!**

He wasn't wrong.

Hank waved his hand to Jack to shut the door. "There's been a bit of a snag." He waved Jack into a chair.

When Jack sank into the chair behind the desk he once occupied himself, Hank steepled his fingers. "The tribunal sent someone over to arrest Sam." He waved Jack down when he started to rise in alarm. "I couldn't directly stop them but I talked them down from the edge, she's under house arrest in one of the VIP rooms. She'd got her laptop and files to keep busy and the kids stayed on base over night with her. It was the best I could do on short notice. Jack, be honest with me, did Sam use a fertility clinic like she says to conceive Jake or were you two having an affair and covered it up?" He didn't ask out of judgment. He'd recuse himself before he'd testify against his superior officer. He had that right.

"Sam and I ended our physical relationship the night I badly tried to explain I was trying to protect her. I went to her wedding because it was the polite thing to do, I think I bought her a toaster to remind her of her dad and then we didn't speak again for years. We haven't been in each other's physical company for nine years Hank. Even when I came to the base here, she made extreme effort to avoid all contact."

"You didn't question the timing of the first pregnancy?"

"I had no reason to. Sam wouldn't have knowingly kept that information from me. She knows how I feel about kids." She had, but she'd been afraid and people do panicky things when they were afraid. It wasn't that he wasn't mad. It was that he understood. Had she told him he probably would have gone in guns blazing, demanded to be a part of their lives, declaring his love for her or the kids like a total idiot. She knew him well enough to know the result if she'd told him the truth at any point prior to her divorce. And ironically, she'd protected her kids from that butt munch power hungry state representative.

"Fair enough. I suggest you handle your problem child swiftly. Also call your attorney, get guardianship set up so the kids can go home. I don't mind them being here but seeing their mom this upset isn't doing them any good."

"Is she all right?"

"She's hiding it well Jack but you know what's going on in her head better than I do."

Jack nodded. "Let's go talk to my team about this latest snafu."

"Agreed"

* * *

"Jack, you're better off not seeing her right now." Harry warned him.

"Harry…"

"I'm serious Jack." They were in the briefing room and Hank and Jack had filled in the other men on the latest developments. "Anything you do is going to look incriminating right now. Once the charges are dismissed or dropped it won't matter but right now it does."

"I hate to say it Jack but he's probably right." Daniel agreed.

"Whose side are you on here Daniel?" Jack grumped.

"Yours Jack. Yours and Sam's and the kids."

"That's dirty pool and you know it Danny." He said frowning.

"He's probably right though Jack. It's better if you stay away for now. I'll get a note to Sam if you want me to though honestly, that's a bad idea too." Hank told him.

Jack's face settled into a disgusted snarl. "All right, let's get to DC and plug this hole so I can get back to my life."

* * *

They were on a flight out to DC within two hours. "So explain to me how you intend to not need the password?" Jack asked Harry.

Harry fished a small device out of his pocket. "This little doodad is an encryption scanner. Tollarian design. The handful of them left are pretty happy to trade away their secrets now. Life lesson learned, eh Jack?"

Jack frowned. He hadn't like the Tollarians per se but he'd liked a few of them and tolerated a couple more, even that nut job, Narim. Carter sure had attracted some doozies in the past.

Teal'c was eyeballing Harry. Jack couldn't blame the guy. The Jaffa's capacity to maintain a grudge without killing the other person was legendary.

"Daniel, do you think you could pretend to be a reporter if I got you a press pass?" Jack asked him.

"Sure, what have you got in mind Jack?"

"Ok, here's the idea…"


	35. March 11th:

It had taken Jack a couple days to line up his ducks while staying under the radar. It helped that Harry apparently still had a lot of contacts in Washington. In a typical display of Maybourne level paranoia, after the last incident he'd decided to stick his fingers into as many pies as he could manage. He had a more extensive network than the Tok'ra and half the headaches. Jack would have to revise how he dealt with the guy. He could be a useful asset, especially for Woolsey.

Daniel was now hooked up with a faked up press badge. Jack was going to have to go as himself, his face was far too familiar but while he didn't generally entertain reporters it wasn't entirely unlikely for him to do so. Teal'c looked enough like a bodyguard to be ignored and Harry always looked like a flunky no matter what he did with himself so that's the direction Jack took it.

They were currently in a hotel room pretending to give an interview until they got an opening at their desired location. The Congressman maintained a rather lavish house in downtown DC and Jack was pretty much waiting for a house party to start so they could sneak in unnoticed.

"So Jack…" Daniel started in.

"Daniel."

"What exactly did you mean by having to go back to being very careful when it came to your romantic relationship with Sam?"

"Is this really the right time for this conversation?"

Daniel shrugged. "You got a better topic?"

"Literally anything Daniel." Jack said and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"It would be far more unlikely had Colonel Carter and O'Neill not engaged in a sexual relationship then the fact that they did Daniel Jackson."

"Do you really need to say it that way T?" Jack sighed. This conversation was giving him a headache.

"So how long did that go on?" Daniel asked Jack, purposely ignoring Jack's pained body language.

"Things happen sometimes Daniel. Let it drop."

"How many times?"

"Dammit Daniel, I said drop it!"

"No, I want to hear this Jack. Clearly you weren't one and done with Sam. When did you guys start…?" Harry asked. He gestured in a vague way to indicate back and forth.

Jack gave in. They weren't going to let up anyway. "We didn't set out with any intention of doing anything. Missions go sideways. Stuff happens. It wasn't an every day or even a frequent thing. It was just something that happened periodically when the stress got to be too much for both of us." Jack admitted. He was as human as the next guy and the woman you're in love with throwing herself at you because she's emotionally overwrought about the same thing that has you strung out over too would break any man. It had him.

"When did you guys first.. ah… you know?"

"Funnily enough, it started with what happened to you on Kelowna, Daniel. I was being an asshole and Sam was upset all the time and she came over to tell me I was being an asshole, which she did. We yelled at each other for a while until we found ourselves kissing each other and then things sort of got out of hand."

"Vala is a big fan of angry make up sex too." Daniel told them.

"That's the funny thing, if it had been that, it probably wouldn't have happened again. It was more like…" Jack scrubbed his hand through his hair, unable to come up with the words to describe making love to Sam for the first time.

"Coming home." Daniel said softly.

Jack looked at him hard for a moment then nodded his head slowly. He didn't have to say anything else.

* * *

"Colonel Carter, this is an exploratory session only. You are not currently yet on trial as there is some ambiguity as to the validity of the claims made against you." The head of the tribunal told her.

"Yes sir." Sam said meekly. Her heart was racing. All she could think of was her conversation with her son last night.

_"Mom, why did they bring us down here?"_

_"Because mom has to stay here tonight and probably tomorrow night too."_

_"Where's dad?"_

_Sam swallowed. "He'll be back soon. He had something he had to go do."_

_"A mission like you go on and dad stays home?" Georgie had asked._

_"Yes sweetie, a mission just like mom."_

_"Isn't dad a little old for missions mom?"_

_Sam snorted a laugh. "A little. I doubt his knee is thanking him."_

_"It makes really cool popping noises when he tries to crouch down to my level. Jake laughs every time he does it." Georgie said, his eyes twinkling. Jake was absorbed in some cartoon show Sam couldn't make heads or tails of. _

_"It's done that for years." Sam told him and ruffled his hair._

_"Mom?"_

_"Yah kiddo?"_

_"Are you and dad in trouble because of me?"_

_Sam pulled Georgie forward and hugged him fiercely. "Nothing we can't handle kiddo." She'd kissed the top of his head reassuringly. Totally worth it she thought fiercely looking at her boys._

Sam's council stood to address the tribunal. They went through the usual niceties that Sam ignored. Her mind a million miles away, wondering if Jack had gotten back last night or not. She'd not been privy to who came in when the Gate claxons went off and she'd been in no position to ask. She honestly also hadn't wanted to explain any of this to her boys so she'd worked at keeping them as distracted from it as she could.

Easy enough with Jake, hand the kid some art supplies and he was happy as a lark. Georgie had required more reassurance than his brother being both older and considerably more aware of what's going on in his parent's lives.

"Council, we are told you have information refuting the charges?"

"Yes sir. If I may, in part, the charges revolve around the accusation of infidelity on the part of Colonel Carter, specifically in regards to the parentage of her children. The accusation states, and I will paraphrase to save you time sirs, that Colonel Carter engaged in an extramarital affair resulting in a child currently age eight and another who is currently age five."

"That is correct council."

"Yes, well, Colonel Carter freely admits to being in a relationship with General Jonathan J. O'Neill from the period after her transfer out of his command until shortly prior to resuming her relationship with Detective Peter Shanahan. So shortly in fact, that Colonel Carter was unaware of the pregnancy if she in fact conceived prior to the end of the relationship with General O'Neill.

"For the sake of brevity due to the rest of the circumstances, Colonel Carter does not deny George James Shanahan to be Jonathon O'Neill's biological progeny. I wish to submit the medical paperwork regarding the conception of one Jacob Michael Shanahan via artificial insemination. Please note that General O'Neill has signed said paperwork and confirmed with me this morning that this is in fact his signature on Exhibit A."

So he had gotten home, Sam thought. But not let her know. She wondered why.

"Colonel Carter and General O'Neill considered this a private matter between themselves. While it exhibits poor judgment on both their parts, there are no regulations regarding the lack of wisdom of having said procedure performed without informing one's spouse. I am sure in retrospect both wish they had been more open about the matter but Colonel Carter wished to spare her husband the shame of discovering the son both of them thought was his was in fact the child of another man."

"What was Colonel Carter's reason for choosing a medical procedure with another man's genetic material rather than that of her husband?"

"According to Colonel Carter, on examination of her then husband's sperm it was found he's infertile. She does not have record of said tests because she performed them privately on her own equipment."

"Then how do you expect us to believe her reasons?"

"Ah, I'm glad you asked. Exhibit B is an e-mail exchange between Colonel Carter and General O'Neill where she mentions her discovery and her subsequent request to follow through on a request made by a military ally some time back that if the opportunity should arise, they use said genetic material to reproduce together due to General O'Neill's unique genetics.

"Exhibit C is record of a vasectomy performed on General O'Neill and a confirmation follow up that he was no longer fertile that predates the conception procedure. There is no physical way Colonel Carter could have conceived other than by artificial insemination."

"So, in short, your assertion is that at no point did Colonel Carter engage in actions that broke regulations."

"That is correct sir."

The Colonel presiding over the tribunal tapped his pen on the papers in front of him thoughtfully. After a moment he leaned forward. "All right. Colonel Carter you will return to confinement. We'd still like to talk directly to General O'Neill regarding this matter. Currently your documents shed light on the circumstances surrounding the accusations made and clarify why they might have been made in error. Let it be noted that as a Joint Chief any accusation regarding fraternization with a commanding officer are dropped. General O'Neill is outside the purview of chain of command and therefore while frowned upon, a personal relationship with him is not strictly against regulations for Colonel Carter.

"Thank you sir. We'll await further instructions."

The session broke and Sam followed her JAG officer out. "That went very well actually. I don't think the charges will stick but we'll have to wait and see."

Sam sighed. "I don't know what I'm going to do if the do honestly. I have two kids at home whose father had his parental rights severed before he knew they weren't his kids."

"Sam, is it possible this is retaliation on his part?"

"It wouldn't be the first time. My divorce attorney is still trying to prove he forged my signature on a second mortgage on the house I won in the divorce to force me to surrender custody of the kids even though he never paid child support and refused to see them."

"It would be best if General O'Neill petitioned for custody Sam."

She nodded. "You're probably right. There's not much they can do to me if he's their legal guardian."

"By your lack of immediate objection to that idea I assume you are on friendly terms with the General?"

"It took us a while but yes, we're friends again."

"Co-parenting is easier when you're on speaking terms." He told her with an amused smile.


	36. 1900 hours March 11:

**1900 hours March 11:**

"We ready?"

"As ready as we'll ever be Jack." Daniel told him.

"Got your doohickey handy Maybourne?"

"I've always got my doohickey Jack." He said with a smirk.

"O'Neill does not mean your penis Colonel Maybourne." Teal'c told him.

Daniel snorted with mirth.

* * *

Fifteen minutes later Jack showed up in full dress uniform. Teal'c was in black, his forehead covered by a tight fitting black cap designed to look vaguely religious in nature. Daniel looked like an average newspaper reporter and wore a cheap suit jacket and the press pass Jack had somehow acquired for him. Daniel decided it was best if he just didn't ask.

Jack walked into the party like he owned the place. It's amazing how much attention flunkies stop paying to you with a bunch of chest candy and some stars. He should have tried that the last time. Daniel was let in shortly after, pretending to be from a 'nothing liberal rag' as the doorman described his stated paper's name and they pretended not to know each other at all. An easy task as Jack was gaining attention from state representatives that recognized the eccentric head of Homeworld who was known for sarcastic jokes and a lack of patience for nonsense that wasn't inclined to comedic effect.

While Jack drew attention to himself, Harry slunk in through the back of the house and hunted up the office equipment. He didn't have to break directly into the system, just power up any unit on the private server the man maintained for his less than legitimate business dealings and let his little slicer sift through the information until it stumbled on what he needed. Technically, if Harry had the equipment to do it, he could transfer every bit of data to an offsite location without a trace but he didn't have time for that. He did have time to get system passwords and a back door installed so he could access the stuff remotely any time he wanted.

For now it would give Jack the leverage he needed to get this slimeball off Sam's back. Harry had some other plans though when he found the note from an 'anonymous' source in the idiot's desk. Didn't anyone tell him you lock up crap like that? Harry couldn't figure out if it was balls or stupidity and concluded it was likely both in equal measures for this guy.

Ten minutes later, Harry was buttoning up and ready to leave when he heard a commotion from the front of the house. A bigger one then the swanky party that had been in full swing when he broke in that is. Right on time he thought as he slipped quietly away.

"You've got a lot of nerve showing up here General." The short, weak chinned owner of the house told him.

"I haven't got a clue what you mean by that." Jack said affably. He'd been chatting up a minor dignitary he was friendly with as a way to keep eyes on the room when steam ship shady assed politician had rolled up full sail. Jack wasn't overly concerned about having mentally mixed his metaphors as they both fit.

"Shouldn't you be home covering your ass right now... General?"

"My ass is happy to be out in the open actually. It likes the sunshine." Jack grinned ear to ear. God he'd missed this shit.

"Be a real shame you losing those kids before you even have a chance to claim them." The congressman told Jack. It was probably the wrong button to push. Generally, Jack was a fan of a little professional maneuvering from time to time but threatening kids was going a bit too far in his book. Threatening _his_ kids was quite possibly the stupidest thing the guy could have done.

Jack's smile vanished and an unholy light lit his deep brown eyes as he looked down into the rheumy ones of his verbal opponent. He wouldn't play his hand but he was about to make something very, very clear to this rat fink turtle. Jack's hand shot out and settled on the front of the other man's jacket, curling around the lapel. He leaned in very close so he could whisper to the man. "Hurt those kids and I'll make what happened to Kinsey look like a pleasant experience to you."

"How dare you threaten me in my own home!" The other man nearly shouted at Jack, gathering the attention of his bouncers.

Jack stood at his full height and glared down at the other man. "That wasn't a threat Congressman. That was a promise." He put a hand up and motioned for Teal'c to follow him. The party was over for him. If Harry didn't have the stuff he was on his own now.

Daniel bustled forward with a handheld recorder and shoved it into the face of the man Jack had just confronted. "Sir, can you confirm or deny the rumors that your case against Colonel Carter is revenge for the events surrounding former Vice President Kinsey's death?"

The gaggle of other reporters that had previously ignored Daniel descended on him like bot flies on a warm moist surface and started asking him questions Daniel was more than happy to fill them in on.

Jack left with Teal'c in tow, followed closely by the security staff to assure that he did in fact leave the premises. Harry who had posed as their driver pulled the car around and Jack and Teal'c got in.

"Where's Daniel?"

"On his way." Jack told him.

Daniel was physically removed from the house and deposited on the curb near the car. Jack companionably leaned out. "Need a ride kid?" He asked urbanely.

Daniel glared. "Are you headed near the west side General?"

"My evening plans seem to have panned out. How would you like to find a bar to socialize in instead?"

"Sounds good." Daniel agreed and got in.

As they drove off, the entire exchange being mostly planned and an utter red herring for the staff to report back, Jack turned to Harry. "Did you get it?"

"Yah, I'm good. You guys head back home, take care of Sam. Give me a few days to button this up. I need to make copies and set up some fail safes. I'll let you know when I'm in position."

Jack nodded. "Oy. All right. It's your call Maybourne."


	37. 1200 hours March 12:

**1200 hours March 12:**

Jack scrubbed at his hair tiredly. He'd tried to sleep on the plane but he'd been antsy. There wasn't anything else he could do for Carter until he heard back from Maybourne or the tribunal sent word that the charges had been revoked, another clear signal that their little plan was in full swing. In the meantime he would see if Sam's JAG officer was on base today. It showed he was signed in so he just needed to hunt him up. Major… something. He'd not caught the name when he'd briefly talked to the guy before he left for DC. He should make a little more effort in that department honestly. Carter wasn't always around to remind him whose name he'd forgotten.

Jack smiled in amusement that he had her to remember stuff for him in the first place. Honestly if this gambit didn't work out Jack would publically step down and expose his reason for doing so just as publically. It might embarrass Sam for a while and she'll be mad as hell at him for that but he wasn't going to be used. Even angry at him, she'd never go back on her word about letting him be part of the boy's lives and she'd especially not do so with Georgie knowing Jack was his birth father now. It was one thing to do it to protect her marriage, it was another to do it to pay him back for dragging her unintentionally through the mud. Sam wasn't the kind to hold that kind of grudge anyway.

Jack found the Major in an under used office Jack was pretty sure might have been his at one point. He had no idea. He'd always done his paperwork in Sam's lab or Daniel's… storage unit.

"General O'Neill. I was hoping you would find me. Please take a seat, I have some questions for you."

Jack closed the door. The whole base didn't need to hear Sam's business and he was probably about to lie his ass off for the next hour or so. He plopped down in the empty chair in front of the desk. "What do you want to know Major…?"

"Smith." He said with a droll smile that made Jack shake his head.

"Got a cousin named Agent by chance, Major Smith?"

"One or two yes." The man replied dead pan. Jack decided he liked the guy.

"I discussed this briefly with Colonel Carter but it would be in the best interest of the boys if you petitioned for custody after a DNA test confirms both your claims that both children are your biological sons."

Jack's eyes narrowed. "I'm not taking Carter's kids from her." He said with a dangerous note of finality.

"The intent is not to take her children but to protect them legally from their estranged former father." Smith explained quickly. The general was an extremely imposing man when irked. "If you have or share legal custody of the boys, it's much harder for the courts to intervene against her if her ex goes that route."

Jack smiled then and waved a hand dismissively. "We've already got that covered. There should be legal guardianship papers drawn up for me already on base or on their way here soon as she put that in motion prior to me leaving on my last mission. Also I've applied for legal adoption of both boys."

"I'm not sure I understand, why would you need to adopt children who are biologically your own?"

"Normally I wouldn't but because Colorado laws are the way they are, their paternity isn't relevant, only the parent of record is. For instance neither of them could be mine or only one but if I adopt them both their father of record becomes me rather than Shanahan."

"I see. Family court isn't my specialty Sir." The Major admitted.

Jack fished in his pocket until he found Lorin's business card. "It's hers though. Feel free to contact her. If she charges any hours just have her do so to the adoption case not Carter, ok?"

"It's probably not in her best interest that you keep covering her expenses if you are trying to maintain a professional distance." Major Smith told Jack.

"Then it's probably a good thing that's not my goal. I'm retiring as soon as the adoption goes through. I have about that long to convince Carter I'm still in love with her. So far, that seems to be working out. Even if it wasn't, it would be best for the boys if we are married to each other. We've always gotten along well, she and I. The kids deserve a stable home life." Jack told him unusually candidly. Of course he'd done so to get this kid off the scent that there was anything hinky about the fertility treatment. Most situations like that were taken at face value but all it would take is someone questioning the validity of the e-mail exchange or his signature for this to all fall around her ears. That was simply untenable in his estimation. He'd have signed the paperwork anyway. Even hurt and angry he'd have done so. Love, he decided for the umpteenth time, made you do some really questionably stupid stuff.

"All right. I'll give her a call."

"Thanks. I'm going to go check on Carter, make sure she's holding up."

"Normally Sir, I'd advise against that but given your revelation regarding your intentions towards her, feel free to fill her in on the details of this conversation if you have the time."

Jack nodded. "I'm sure the tribunal wants to talk to me directly. I'll be in town a few days. Remind them that my schedule doesn't revolve around this."

"I will sir." The Major said with a nod as Jack left. His solution to Colonel Carter's situation was a novel one. Enough so that it very likely would work.


	38. 1300 hours March 12th:

**1300 hours March 12:**

Jack knocked politely and waited for Sam to say 'come in' before barging into the VIP suite that she was sharing with the boys. It was the one done up in blues and greens that he always thought was a little tacky but had not gotten around to having redecorated during his short tenure as base commander. If he could get Carter into the position he'd bring it up.

"Carter?" he said to her with a cautious smile. She was sitting at the table in the middle of the room, her laptop in front of her, a pencil in her hair and assorted paperwork spread out around her.

She looked up at him and smiled. "When did you get in?"

He sighed as he leaned on the wall by the door. "Four days ago. I tried to come see you before I left for DC but Landry didn't think it was the best idea given the situation."

Sam nodded. "I had my exploratory hearing. They want to talk to you as well before they decide if they will move forward. How did DC go?"

He shook his head. "It's in Maybourne's hands now. At least I can count on his loyalty to you." Jack told her.

"His loyalty to me?" She sounded surprised.

"He named his oldest daughter after you." Jack told her and smiled at the bright blush that colored her cheeks and neck.

"That's very…"

"Creepy?"

"Sweet." She corrected him.

"Well, you did give our oldest my middle name in spite of what was going on so I could see how you might see it that way." He agreed.

"Is that a dig sir?" She asked him archly.

"More of pride in your sneaky cleverness to fly that one right under the radar." He admitted which made her eyes twinkle as she got up from her seat.

She got about halfway across the room between them before her expression changed to perplexed. Jack acted entirely on instinct when her eyes went dull then rolled in her head as she slid bonelessly to the floor.

"Carter?" He yelped as he grabbed for her. "Medic! I need a medic!" He yelled towards the door as he pulled her into the recovery position and stroked her face gently. "Stay with me Carter. I need you." His voice cracked at the admission. "Medic!" Jack screamed again. His voice breaking over the word.

The SP guarding her door flung it open, took one look and slapped the PA button inside the room. Jack didn't hear what the man said, his focus was on Sam who looked pale and was unresponsive.

Infirmary staff flooded the room, carried her off and Jack followed, his expression much as he attempted to hide it, stricken.

* * *

Sam came to, swatting away Carolyn's hand as she was checking for pupil reaction. "I'm fine," she grumbled. "I'm fine." As she tried to pull away.

"Lie still Sam. General O'Neill tells me you passed out in the middle of a conversation."

Sam's face scrunched. "It was more pecking at each other but yah."

Carolyn chuckled. "I'm going to run some blood work, see if you have a virus or something. MRS can cause dizzy spells."

Sam huffed a sigh. "That would just figure. The kids probably gave me something."

"Uh huh. Any other symptoms other than the light-headed spell?"

Sam looked perplexed as though she was trying to add up a calculation that she was missing the numbers for.

Carolyn Lam tilted her head thoughtfully. "Cramps? Soreness? Short of breath? Vomiting and or smell sensitivity? Fatigue? Moodiness? Frequent urination? Bloating?"

"Carolyn, half that stuff is PMS." Sam argued.

"…Spotting?"

Sam's mouth made an O. "But... but he's…"

"Those can spontaneously reverse Sam."

Sam's eyes went wide at that point. Finally in exasperation she breathed "Oh for cryin' out loud." And her head fell back against the pillow with a small thud.

Carolyn snorted a laugh. "I'd like to see the Venn diagram of how many men that's happened to cross referenced with how many of them test positive for Alteran genetics."

Jack, in spite of being ordered not to, finally couldn't take it anymore and entered the room when he saw through the small window that Sam was awake again.

"Sir, I thought I told you I'd get you when I was done." Carolyn admonished him.

"Is she ok Doc?" Jack asked, his face a mask of concern as he looked at Sam.

"Oh she's fine sir. Saved you some money too." She quipped with a chuckle.

Jack narrowed his eyes in confusion.

"I'll get that lab work done Sam." She grinned and resisted the urge to tell them congratulations.

"I might be afraid to ask but what was that about?"

Sam took that moment to dissolve into a fit of giggles. It was just too ridiculous that of all things to happen at quite possibly the most insanely inappropriate time after they had only slept together the two times since he came back into her life. Somewhere her father who had accused Jack of bedding his daughter when they met, was laughing.

Jack stood there looking at her, his expression exasperated. "Carter." He growled. "Care to let me in on the joke?"

Sam wiped a tear of laughter from her cheek. "Well. You will not have to pay for a vasectomy reversal." She told him still snorting with mirth.

"Huh? What do you…" Jack's brain caught up with what she was getting at and he plopped down in the chair next to her bed. "…You're?"

Sam wondered if that would have been his reaction for Georgie too. He looked just floored like he couldn't wrap his head around the idea of him being biologically functional after all the damage he'd done his body over the years. "Are you… all right with this?" She asked him, finally realizing she might need to be concerned.

Without a word his hand snaked out and spread low over her belly. His expression swirled from tender to fierce. He lifted his eyes from her belly to her eyes. He swallowed. "This one starts with my name Carter."

Sam tilted her head and slowly smiled at him. "Yes they will." She promised him.

They sat like that for a long time, not talking to each other verbally. Finally Carolyn cam back. "Well, I have your blood work. I'd say you are about two weeks along Sam.

Jack had the sort of big dopy grin on his face common to excited new fathers. "Sweet." Was all he said.

Sam shook her head and smiled in amusement.


	39. Also March 12th:

**Also March 12th:**

Harry Maybourne was a pragmatic man. His previous lack of moral fortitude had earned him the loyalty of some less than honest folks over the years.

Ironically enough lots of those less than honest folks had individual loyalties to exactly the person he'd warned this bumbling little inbreed not to cause trouble for. And he'd caused a whole heap of trouble. Not wanting there to be any alarm or clean up after, his people had moved in and quietly sedated each of the good congressman's staff and security then stood sentry where there should have been someone as if nothing at all had happened and piled them up like sausages in a quiet spot guarded by yet more loyal toadies.

It said a lot how much the man didn't give a crap about his people that he noticed nothing at all different about his staff as long as they were in the right places. Harry knew each of his people by name, their families, what they wanted for ever loving Christmas. But this guy? Harry shook his head. All he was to them was a paycheck. Money didn't buy loyalty. Harry's men and women had been picked for this little incursion because of their specific loyalties not to himself though they were up to a point, so far as the paycheck ran. Every single one of them was alive because of a particular incredibly brilliant scientist and each of them was aware of that matter. Add in that she was quite possibly the nicest person Harry or any of them had ever met in their colorful lives and well, that was just a recipe for loyalty that couldn't be sold out.

It had taken little more than a brief synopsis to each of them to gather his happy little band of angry young men. Harry was fairly piqued about this guy screwing with Jack too but while Jack often commanded loyalty, Sam inspired fanatical devotion. She could have started her own cult had she any interest in doing so.

Harry should know. He'd named his tough as nails oldest daughter after the woman after all. She'd make a fine queen one day. He'd make sure he drilled into her to make sure whoever she took to her bed was smart enough to give her intelligent offspring. A stupid king or queen was a dead king or queen. Or worse, a puppet.

His radio double clicked. Show time.

Harry Maybourne sat in the leather chair reserved for a petty man with more power than he warranted. He leaned back and smiled. Today that man would learn there were powers greater than him in the universe. Powers that would not hesitate to crush him like the worthless little bug that he was.

* * *

His unusual collection of hangers on all but physically dragged the man into the office and forcibly sat him in the chair across from his desk.

"What are you doing here? You can't do this to me! I'll have you arrested!" He threatened while a pair of meat-hook hands held him down.

Harry ran his thumbnail on his teeth thoughtfully. "Can't I? Seems I already am Congressman. Do you remember the last time someone in your government crossed my people? It didn't end very well for him, did it? I bet you're a little smarter than that. Probably not very, you look like your parents were siblings but at least a little." Harry told the other man with a nasty sort of grin.

The older man began to bluster that he didn't know what Harry was talking about and Harry's finger came up and a slick cold knife slid along the Congressman's neck. He stopped talking with a terrified gulp.

Harry tsked. "Now, now, can't have that, can we?" He leaned forward and pressed his elbows on the desk. "You know, I warned you years ago that I'd leave you alone for your part in that whole Kinsey thing but there were conditions. Conditions you apparently forgot in your enthusiasm to be a greedy self-serving bastard." Harry held up a thumb drive. It was empty but the other man had no way of knowing that. "Care to guess what's on here?"

"I haven't the slightest idea but you're going to jail a very long time. I will have you hunted like an animal."

"I don't even exist." Harry told him with an amused smile that didn't reach his eyes. "Here's how this works. I tell you how to dig yourself out from this and you follow directions this time. Or everyone finds out the good Congressman of Kentucky is a drug runner and is using that as an excuse to beef up the police in his state so he can have his own little goon squad."

Harry laughed again. It wasn't a nice or friendly laugh. It was one of cold disgust. "You don't pay them enough to keep them loyal. They are already out of your control but that's not my problem. See, I told you at the start to leave Colonel Carter out of any ideas you cooked up to maintain control of your little kingdom."

"Or what? O'Neill is a tired old man who I have by the cock." The short man smirked.

Harry nodded. "I'll admit, I like the guy, but this isn't about him. It never was. You should have left her alone the first time. Not used her to control him because now you have my full and undivided attention buddy, and that's probably not a good thing for a man in your position. So, here's how this works. You drop all the charges against Colonel Carter, tell them you received false Intel from her angry ex-husband who knew all along those kids weren't his and was fucking every whore from here to Tallahassee." Harry tapped the thumb drive thoughtfully on the desk. "I don't suppose you'd like to know why?"

"I'm sure you are going to tell me."

"I am." Harry agreed. "See, Sam saved our collective asses from world annihilation enough times to warrant a little happily ever. These guys with me? She's personally saved each of their lives at some point. If you so much as think about screwing with her again and by proxy, O'Neill, first, the information on your little side quest goes public. Your constituents might not care, but the IOA and State and Federal attorneys will." Harry got up and his people tied the little weasel to the chair. "Oh and Congressmen, threaten those kids and I'll make sure whatever happens to you is very slow and extremely unpleasant." Harry grinned and left the room. His people melted into the shadows. The morning shift would find everyone alive, just groggy and confused as to what happened. One of the people restraining the Congressman casually clubbed him over the head, knocking him out.

"All right. Moving on." Harry told the grim men flanking him as he left the mansion.


	40. March 13th:

_**AN:**__ Sorry about the super short chapter. I'll post a chapter to something else as well to make up for it!_

**March 13th:**

Walter walked into the VIP room Sam and the kids were using. Jack had stayed the night, piled in bed together like puppies, seeking comfort in each other's embrace. They decided to wait to tell the kids about their impending little brother or sister until they got past the first trimester. Sam had reasoned that if she was going to spontaneously miscarry at her age it would be in the first three months and she didn't want to upset the boys if something happened.

Jack was in the corner doing his paperwork at a rickety looking folding desk from the Nam era. The boys were arguing over the plot for an animated Star Wars show with characters Jack didn't recognize. Sam was making notes on paper next to her laptop as she only had one white board and it was clearly full.

"General sir?" Walter said politely, addressing the ranking officer first regardless that he was there to see Sam.

"Walter, good to see you? Any news on the western front?" He quipped.

"There is sir." He said suppressing a shit eating grin. "I have paperwork from the tribunal." He walked forward and handed it to Sam who looked up in vague interest until her brain was pulled from her computations to what Walter had said.

"What's this?" She asked.

"A determination from the tribunal, Ma'am." He told her with a most un-Waltery grin.

She read them quickly and handed them to Jack.

"Way to go Maybourne." Jack said under his breath. "You know I owe that sleazy rat fink now right?"

"No you don't Jack." Harry said as he strolled in behind Walter nonchalantly. "I have one other loose end to tie up on this but that should be the end of it. You can get back to your lives." He said grinning. He didn't mind Jack calling him what he'd been for years. Still was on his more honest days.

Sam looked at Harry thoughtfully. She got up gingerly at first, wary of another dizzy spell and walked over to the spy turned king and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Thank you Harry. You've really changed since I first met you."

"No, I haven't Sam. I just have people I'm loyal to who are loyal back that's all."

Jack gave him a thoughtful understanding look.

"Well, like I said, I have another loose end to tie up and then I'll be out of your hair. Congratulations on the no longer being under arrest thing Sam." He told her with an amused little smile.

After Harry left Sam looked at Jack. "What do you suppose he means by that?"

Jack seemed to think for a long moment but decided the less she knew the less she'd be mad at anyone. "Couldn't tell yah." He said.

"Couldn't? Or wouldn't General?"

"I plead the fifth Carter." He said, his eyes wide in feigned innocence.

She gave him a dose of the hairy eyeball then rolled her eyes. "You're right. I probably don't want to know."


	41. 2200 hours March 13:

_**AN:**__ The chapter literally everyone has been pestering me about..._

**2200 hours March 13:**

The apartment was dark. Unlike his last quest, there were no staff, no bodyguards. Just an empty room with a couple other empty rooms. Harry had people with him but, like himself, they sat in the shadows. Waiting.

The door finally opened and the man Maybourne had been waiting for stumbled in smelling of cheap beer and cheaper sex.

"Leave the light off detective." Harry told him.

Pete for his part was sober enough to draw down on Harry. He swiftly found himself with a cold barrel to his head and disarmed however by one of Harry's many faceless flunkies.

"Have a seat. Hands on the table." Harry said companionably. "Would you like a drink? Apparently all you have is boxed wine and Old Milwaukee in cans around here but I'm told you aren't a fancy fellow."

"Who are you? What do you want?" Pete demanded as he was shoved into a chair at the kitchen table across from Harry.

"I'm no one. I'm not here and that gun doesn't exist." Harry tossed a medical folder at the detective and indicated he should open it.

Pete followed directions, unsure what the point of all this was. "What do you want?"

"Oh, nothing really. You'll find your bank account a little short. You didn't have quite enough to cover the second mortgage so I requisitioned your retirement fund. Apparently you had a change of heart and decided to pay off the entire thing to the best of your ability." Harry told him.

"That would wipe out my entire savings!"

Harry leaned forward and tilted his head. "And you don't even have kids to support." Harry tsked. "So did you read that?" He tapped the medical report.

Pete looked down at the page in front of him. "Notice the dates." Harry said companionably.

"So?" Pete asked him flippantly.

"Well, it's none of my business but I notice those tests were run nine years ago. You've known all along. What were you planning to do? Lie to her about it until after she was married to you? But then you hit the jackpot didn't you? She came home, upset, heart broken, and already knocked up. Handy for you. You could have just left things alone but you just had to stir the pot and see how far she'd go, didn't you? Were you hoping she'd come clean so you could get out and blame her?" Harry asked the blond man who was now graying at the temples.

"This doesn't prove anything. It doesn't say I can't have kids, just that the probability is really low." Pete was just smart enough to know Sam had used a fertility clinic but he didn't know much about how those things worked and he had assumed the sperm Sam used was his. Knowing both the kids were that bastard she'd been fucking around with before burned in his gut.

"Yah… that's not going to hold up buddy after forcing her into a corner. Were you hoping to force her back into bed with her ex? That's pretty funny if things had landed like that, he'd been snipped by then." Harry laughed.

"Why exactly are we having this conversation?"

"Can't a guy have a friendly conversation with his friend's ex-husband?" Harry asked innocently. At Pete's flat expression Harry grinned. "No?"

"Well, be that as it may, as you can see, I can pretty much get my hands on anything I really want to. I suppose you're wondering why I'm telling you that? For a detective you don't seem very bright really." Harry told him companionably.

"I'm going to find out who you are." Pete said, his voice slightly annoyed.

"I told you Shanahan, I don't exist. You're looking for a ghost. I'm not your real problem anyway. You're going to leave Sam and her kids alone. When your paperwork comes through, you're going to sign off on using your retirement savings to pay off the home loan you falsified records on because if you don't, this little tidbit of information is going to get back to the local papers that you misrepresented yourself, an officer of the law. How does your police chief feel about detectives that lie to their spouses about their fertility then force them to go to extreme measures to get pregnant thinking how cruel it was to you if you found out that way?" Harry shook his head in amusement.

"And if I find out you've done otherwise? You won't need to worry about being broke. If you catch my meaning." Harry said in a companionable voice like he was talking about getting together to watch a game.

"I don't have a lot of use for a man who refuses to love the children of the woman he professes to love anyway. I've never treated any of my step kids the way you did those boys. The oldest hates you and you earned that."

Harry rapped the table with his knuckles twice. "Nice talk." He said dismissively and motioned for his people to move out. "Follow directions detective, and everything will be just fine. Hunky dory even"

The last one to leave was the faceless goon who had a gun to Pete's head. Before the man moved away the recognizable click of the safety being disengaged popped next to his ear. The man silently left and it was several minutes before Pete dared turn to see the apartment was empty, his side arm was laying on the table by the door, having been silently deposited. He'd have it checked for prints but he already knew the lab geeks would come up with nothing.

Pete got up and pulled a beer out of the fridge. He never should have answered the door nine years ago. None of this shit would have happened had he turned that woman away but he'd let his ego remind him that she'd come back to him after rolling with the General so there had to be something he had that the other man didn't.

For a brief moment Pete considered defying the man who had broken into his home and threatened him, just to see what might happen. But a warning went off in his head that unlike O'Neill, this man would not hesitate to solve the problem with the final solution. Whoever the agent with a smarmy grin was, he wasn't someone who made idle threats.

He was better off just letting the matter drop. He had no doubt that man or one of his associates would be back if he didn't and he got the distinct impression he wouldn't be getting any second chances on this one.


	42. Saturday April 3rd:

_**AN:**__The final chapter of the story unless you like mucking everything up._

**Saturday April 3rd:**

It was early morning at the mountain; Jack stood in a black suit and dove grey tie talking to Daniel in front of a floral covered arbor outside in a little clearing in the wood near the base.

"Does this seem sort of vaguely familiar to you Jack?" Daniel asked him.

Jack looked confused. "No. Why?"

"Nothing. There's just something familiar about all this. Like we've done exactly this before."

"Well, we were ushers the last time."

"And Vala wasn't here." Daniel agreed as Cassie and Vala stood outside the pavilion set up for food but also for Sam to finish getting ready with the boys. Vala wiggled her fingers at Daniel and dimpled at him.

"How much did you have to bribe the kids to behave?"

"Georgie is getting an X-Box, Jake is getting a drafting table." Jack admitted.

"Have you told them about the…?"

Jack shook his head. "Keep it down will yah? Right now that's classified."

"Well someone's bound to notice she's not heading out with us on missions." Daniel pointed out.

"Would yah keep it down?" Jack said, adjusting his tie and checking his pink boutonniere before clapping his hands impatiently and facing front again.

With a huff Daniel reached over and fussed over Jack's flowers and tie until Jack swatted him off. "Keep doing that and people will think it's you I'm marrying Daniel."

"Why would they think that?"

Jack rolled his eyes in the same way Sam often did and Daniel snorted in amusement.

"Woulda been nice if Thor was around yah know?" Jack said sadly.

Daniel didn't answer. Any reply would have made Jack maudlin anyway.

The orchestra started playing and Jack quirked an eyebrow. "Is that?"

"Yup."

Mitchell and Teal'c were sitting in the front on Sam's side snorting in mirth. Clearly the perpetrators behind the change in music from Canon in D to some odd combination of the Wormhole X-Treme! theme and the wedding march by Mendelssohn.

Walter was sitting next to Landry wiping at his eyes and sniffling. Jack blew out a breath as the base Chaplain silently walked up to stand under the arbor and wait for the bride to join them. Jack gave the man a short nod.

Georgie headed up the aisle first, stopped when he saw his brother was still standing at the end of the aisle staring up at his dad in awe and went back to grab him by the front of his suit coat and drag him along, much to the amusement of the assembled guests and their father.

"The oldest is definitely your kid Jack" Daniel told him out of the side of his mouth.

"I still have my doubts about the other one being yours Danno." Jack quipped at him as he watched his youngest boy develop a querulous expression for being manhandled.

Cassie and Vala followed in strapless burgundy dresses holding pink flowers that matched the ones Daniel and Jack were wearing.

Mark sat grinning ear to ear at Jack, his wife holding his hand while David and Lisa, now young adults looked around in interest at all the uniformed officers attending the relatively quiet wedding.

Everyone rose as the music swelled in time to Vala stopping to hug Jack gently and give him a light kiss on the cheek that she thumbed off the wisp of lipstick she'd left behind and whatever Jack said made her laugh softly before going to her position on the bride's side.

And then Jack only had eyes for Sam in an ethereal chiffon concoction that made her look like a fairy princess as she walked towards him, her smile nervous until she reached him and he took her hand reassuringly. 'Relax Carter' his eyes told her and her smile went from nervous to beaming.

"Ready sir?" She asked him.

"Carter…"

She smirked. She'd clearly been screwing with him. "Well Jack?"

"Not funny Samantha." His voice was barely a whisper as he rocked on his heals betraying his own nervousness.

Jake took that moment to lean forward on the bench between Cassie and Vala and wave happily at his dad, making both his parents bite back snorts of mirth.

"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today…" the chaplain intoned. Jack supposed he was lucky the guys hadn't talked him into starting out with 'marriage, that dream within a dream'.

Moments later he was holding Sam's hand promising he'd cherish and love her forever but he doubted she was listening to his words, they stared at each other, as always having their own conversation about their vows that meant far more than any words. It was why both had declined to write individual vows.

Belatedly a plan formulated in Jack's head as Sam agreed to love honor and cherish him always. When the chaplain told him they could now give each other a sign of their affection for one another his hands slid into her hair as he captured her not quite startled lips with his own. When her arm came around his waist then slid up his side to pull him tighter he dipped her to the collective cheers of the assembled SGC and family.

Right about the moment things might have gotten a tad out of hand Jack eased them back into a standing position and grinned at Sam.

"Why does that seem familiar?" Sam asked him, her expression perplexed as though she was trying to remember something.

Cameron was out of his seat though and standing by Daniel. "Here. You were right, neither of them chickened out." He handed the other man several bills that Daniel stuffed in his breast pocket without counting.

"I did warn you not to take that bet Colonel Mitchell."

"Thanks Teal'c." He told him querulously. "Congrats guys." He told the bride and groom affably and patted Jack's arm.

The chaplain trying to get control of the end of the ceremony all but yelled "Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you General O'Neill and Colonel Carter O'Neill."

The cheering got louder as everyone rushed the arbor to congratulate the bride and groom.

An hour later Sam swayed, her head comfortably on Jack's shoulder. "Do you need a little break?" He asked solicitously. She'd hit the exhausted all the time stage of pregnancy and was hiding it well but Jack was an expert at reading his wife. His arms tightened just a little at those last two words.

"I'm all right. This is almost as good." She admitted.

"Are you trying to say I am as exciting as a nap Carter?" He rumbled in her ear, amusement in his voice.

"More as comfortable as one." She admitted. "I love you Jack."

"That's convenient as I never stopped loving you Sam. I never will." He promised.

She could have taken it as an admonishment but it wasn't one. He knew she'd never stopped loving him either.

_If you like satisfying endings this is the end. If like me, you cannot leave well enough alone and feel the need to just retcon perfectly good plot… read the Scooby Do Ending._


	43. Scooby Doo Ending:

_I really mean it. Everything here will basically ruin the entire plot of the story. You have been warned._

A year and a half later Harry Maybourne, king of Arkhan received a report that George James Shanahan and Jacob Michael Shanahan were now officially O'Neill's just like their little sister Debora Grace who was not the cutest baby he'd ever seen (as that was reserved to his own daughter) but she certainly was close. Along with the report regarding the status of the adoption of the boys was a folded DC newspaper. The top article regarding the 'suicide' of Kentucky's congressman caught his eye. "Interesting."

Harry did something he very rarely did simply because each time he did it, he was probably creating another multiverse.

"Ryloth my boy, is the puddle jumper in working order?"

"It is, my lord." The kid told him. When did these servants of his get so young?

"Good. Bring Garan and Samantha to the main hall. If they are busy tell them it's important." Harry never ordered his people. If they were in the middle of something he could usually wait but an impatient part of him wanted this settled up. Events two years ago had led to an outcome that in spite of not liking the guy, he probably didn't deserve. At least not quite yet anyway. He deserved prison first.

Moments later Garan showed up, the courthouse being mere feet from the castle moat. "My king." She said with a happy smile. She very much liked king Akron.

"Good morning Garan. I'll fill you in as soon as Samantha is with us." He said to her with a smile. She was a lovely woman and had he not needed her in the leadership position she held he might have married her as well. It was clear she was attracted to him in no small measure. Perhaps when she retired from her public position and he'd handed the kingdom over to his daughter and it was no longer an issue. He snorted to himself. I sound like Jack, waiting on my feelings because of duty and honor.

Samantha sailed into the room, she was becoming more lovely and well educated with each passing year. Her off-world tutors were serving him well. She would grow into a competent ruler in a few short years.

"My dear ladies, I'll need you to hold down the fort for a couple days." He told them both as breakfast was brought for them.

"Father, have you not servants to do your bidding?" Samantha asked him.

"This isn't a job I can ask a servant to do dear. Ryloth is readying the puddle jumper as I need to travel to Earth discreetly. Events have transpired in such a way as to not be how they should. A man who belongs in prison has been murdered and I must stop the events that lead to it before they begin."

Garen looked at the newspaper. "But does this not solve many problems?"

"He sees no justice for his evil this way, my dear Garen." Harry explained.

"Only you father, would have mercy even on your enemies." Samantha told him.

But that wasn't his real reason. If he stopped the events that led to this at the beginning Jack would never push Sam away and their love would progress as it ought to have on its own. And Harry Maybourne was just enough of a romantic to wish them a genuine happily ever rather than one riddled with a decade of pain.

* * *

An hour later Ryloth, Harry's pilot who happened to be part Alteran, conveniently, a man Harry had recruited off-world on one of his first exploratory excursions to build a network of informants.

"What is our destination sire?"

"Earth, 2005, Ryloth. The day of Jacob Carter's death as a matter of fact."

"Why not his funeral sire?"

"I would prefer to not have to explain to Jack and Sam why I'm in DC and they would probably spot me somehow." He'd never been able to figure out how Jack could zero in on him like he did.

"I see."

The ship lifted easily into orbit and folded space until they found themselves in Earth's orbit instead.

"All right let's see, where to land. Let's wait for dark then put her down in that slum over there. If she's cloaked no one will even notice her or of they do they won't know who to tell anyway."

"If you say so sire." Ryloth agreed.

"Trust me kid, this planet is a dump. Half the people here don't give a crap and half of the ones that do don't give a crap about the right crap."

Evening fell and they landed the small ship in an abandoned lot. "You stay here. Open only to me and only if I'm alone. Remember, ultimately, I'm expendable."

It was what had gained Ryloth's loyalty. Harry wouldn't ask his people to do things he wouldn't handle himself and he wouldn't sacrifice them to save his own ass either.

Harry's first CO had been shady as they came and Harry had been young and naïve. He'd followed orders. It had caught the attention of people under Kinsey and the rest as they say, is history. By the time he realized he was on the wrong side and his superiors weren't loyal back, he'd risked world security. Sam had every right to hate him back then. Teal'c was her friend. A terrifying friend, but her friend.

It had been easier to settle things up with Jack when he was needed until the rest of them accepted his good intent. Jack had every right to call him a rat. He had been.

Harry walked to the nearest 7-11 and called himself a cab. No sense in walking all the way up town he decided.

* * *

The next afternoon Harry set himself up in an abandoned warehouse where a clandestine meeting would occur in about an hour.

What a shithole, he thought. Looks worse than that apartment I used to rent as a safe house.

The players began showing up. Harry had retrieved some ordinance overnight that he'd stowed a few years back. He waited for his shady little friend to show up and got a bead on him. He attached a small servo like unit to the sniper rifle on the tripod and had it recognize the target.

Harry quietly strolled out of his hidey hole and walked up to the group of men gathered together in the middle of the stained concrete floor. "Gentlemen." He said simply and shot the man to the left of him in the head. As he did so he clicked a signal unit in his pocket and a red dot appeared on the target's forehead.

Everyone backed away.

"Don't worry fellas, he was going to die in a gang fight tomorrow anyway. I just shot him to make a point. In about a month you're going think you see your golden opportunity to control the Joint Chiefs."

Harry threw the newspaper at his target's feet. "Might want to check out the date on that. Two weeks from now I'm going to come to you like I didn't see you tonight. I'm going to warn you not to do something very stupid. You're going to follow directions this time Congressman, because if you don't you're going to commit 'suicide' and it isn't the people you threatened that do it. It's going to be your own when the IOA comes after your stupid hillbilly ass."

Harry shrugged as the other man looked at the paper he'd picked up to Harry and back to the paper. "But how?" the man asked him.

"There's a lot of things out there in the universe. It's a big place. Friend of mine once found a time machine on my planet. She saved my people and I owe her. I owe the guy that's taking over for Hammond next month. You're going to leave them out of your bull crap because if you don't, it's going to end ugly for you." Harry gave him a mean smile.

"You can't do this!" The man blustered.

"You keep telling me that every time I see you." Harry shook his head.

"Follow directions this time. If you don't, I'll finish you off myself." And with that Harry disappeared as if he hadn't been there.

In reality he'd triggered a Tollarian phase device and had walked back to his rigged sniper rifle before in-breed's toadies could get up there to find out it was being controlled by a computer not a person and powered it down. Once he touched it, the gun and it's tripod disappeared as well. He moved away from where he'd hidden earlier but stayed until they gave up looking for him then left for the abandoned lot his puddle jumper was waiting for him. It was only a couple blocks down the street after all.

* * *

"Do we return home or to our own time first sire?" Ryloth asked him.

"Time first, let's see if this idiot can follow directions before we go." Harry said. "If not we'll go back and take him out."

Ryloth nodded and returned them to their own time and Harry started checking military records for Sam and Jack.

"Huh."

"Sire?"

"Well, that didn't turn out quite how I expected but they seem happy. All right. Let's go home."

"Yes sire."

* * *

In Colorado Springs, Brigadier General Samantha Carter rolled over and shoved her husband. "Let the dog out, Jack." She grumbled. Said dog, who was a jumble of terrier and whatever else was standing on her and licking her face.

Jack grumbled then yelled. "Gracie! Get the dog and let her out!"

"Dammit Jack, quit yelling in my ear." Sam complained and shoved him again.

Jack grumped and scrubbed at his hair.

Their ten year old daughter stumbled into the room. "I wasn't even up yet dad." She complained. "Come here Marge." She told the dog and without thinking used military hand signals to tell the dog to get down and go to the kitchen.

"Is your brother up?" Sam asked.

"You really think Jake is up at this time of the morning?" Gracie said sarcastically and left the room.

Because Jack wasn't having a disagreement with a congressman three days prior to Georgie's conception he'd made love to the woman he'd just asked to marry him instead and by accident of timing 'Georgie' was conceived 'Gracie'. Jake, oddly enough, was conceived on the date he'd been inseminated on in another reality and was pretty much exactly the same kid. They had not however had a third child, having consciously decided to stop at just the two.

Jack was still special counsel to the president though he wasn't much of a fan of the current guy after having gotten along so well with the last president who shared Teal'c's enjoyment of all things science fiction, especially Star Wars. He was however otherwise retired and had been since Sam made General.

Gracie was, ironically enough, everything Georgie would have been without the hang ups he'd had because of the man that had raised him knowing Georgie wasn't his yet never explained to him that this was why he was not loved.

Although their life was somewhat different, most of it was far more wonderful.


End file.
